diff --git a/src/plugins/kibana/index.js b/src/plugins/kibana/index.js
index f5e9fdb3727a..fa9504f9d339 100644
--- a/src/plugins/kibana/index.js
+++ b/src/plugins/kibana/index.js
@@ -38,10 +38,7 @@ module.exports = function (kibana) {
           let config = server.config();
 
           return {
-            kbnIndex: config.get('kibana.index'),
-            kbnDefaultAppId: config.get('kibana.defaultAppId'),
-            esShardTimeout: config.get('elasticsearch.shardTimeout'),
-            esApiVersion: config.get('elasticsearch.apiVersion'),
+            kbnDefaultAppId: config.get('kibana.defaultAppId')
           };
         }
       }
diff --git a/src/ui/index.js b/src/ui/index.js
index bd06b9631839..5fb6745f6158 100644
--- a/src/ui/index.js
+++ b/src/ui/index.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 module.exports = async (kbnServer, server, config) => {
-  let _ = require('lodash');
+  let { defaults } = require('lodash');
   let Boom = require('boom');
   let formatUrl = require('url').format;
   let { resolve } = require('path');
@@ -56,6 +56,13 @@ module.exports = async (kbnServer, server, config) => {
     }
   });
 
+  const defaultInjectedVars = {};
+  if (config.has('kibana')) defaultInjectedVars.kbnIndex = config.get('kibana.index');
+  if (config.has('elasticsearch')) {
+    defaultInjectedVars.esShardTimeout = config.get('elasticsearch.shardTimeout');
+    defaultInjectedVars.esApiVersion = config.get('elasticsearch.apiVersion');
+  }
+
   server.decorate('reply', 'renderApp', function (app) {
     let payload = {
       app: app,
@@ -63,7 +70,7 @@ module.exports = async (kbnServer, server, config) => {
       version: kbnServer.version,
       buildNum: config.get('pkg.buildNum'),
       buildSha: config.get('pkg.buildSha'),
-      vars: app.getInjectedVars()
+      vars: defaults(app.getInjectedVars(), defaultInjectedVars),
     };
 
     return this.view(app.templateName, {