Backstage has incorrect authorization in search engine permission filtering

### Impact An authenticated Backstage user subject to a `DENY` policy for search document types could receive search results they were not authorized to view. This affects deployments with `permission.enabled: true` and an Elasticsearch or OpenSearch search backend. ### Patches - Upgrade `@backstage/plugin-search-backend` to 2.1.6 - Upgrade `@backstage/plugin-search-backend-module-elasticsearch` to 1.8.7 ### Workarounds If you are unable to upgrade immediately: - Temporarily modify permission policies to use `CONDITIONAL` decisions with per-result filtering rather than blanket `DENY` for search document types - Restrict Elasticsearch/OpenSearch index access at the cluster level so that the search service account can only reach expected Backstage indices, limiting the blast radius if the authorization bypass is triggered.

Source published

7 Oct 2026 18:02:52 UTC

Source modified

7 Oct 2026 18:15:11 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:17:17 UTC

Source terms

GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

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This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS_V3 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Publisher rating · MODERATE