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Vulnerability record · CVE-2023-31421 · published 26 October 2023

CVE-2023-31421: Elastic beats improper certificate validation vulnerability

Elastic · Elastic Beats

It was discovered that when acting as TLS clients, Beats, Elastic Agent, APM Server, and Fleet Server did not verify whether the server certificate is valid for the target IP address; however, certificate signature validation is still performed. More specifically, when the client is configured to connect to an IP address (instead of a hostname) it does not validate the server certificate's IP SAN values against that IP address and certificate validation fails, and therefore the connection is not blocked as expected.

7.5 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 0.32% · top 77.2% CWE-295 · Improper certificate validation
7.5CVSS 3.1 base score
0.32%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
4Affected product versions listed by NVD
4References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

It was discovered that when acting as TLS clients, Beats, Elastic Agent, APM Server, and Fleet Server did not verify whether the server certificate is valid for the target IP address; however, certificate signature validation is still performed. More specifically, when the client is configured to connect to an IP address (instead of a hostname) it does not validate the server certificate's IP SAN values against that IP address and certificate validation fails, and therefore the connection is not blocked as expected.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

4 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://discuss.elastic.co/t/beats-elastic-agent-apm-server-and-fleet-server-8-10-1-security-update-improper-certificate Vendor Advisory
https://www.elastic.co/community/security Vendor Advisory
https://discuss.elastic.co/t/beats-elastic-agent-apm-server-and-fleet-server-8-10-1-security-update-improper-certificate Vendor Advisory
https://www.elastic.co/community/security Vendor Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2023-31421), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.