diff --git a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
index 7e31f71e69e..5bb00dbce58 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
+++ b/CHANGELOG.next.asciidoc
@@ -299,6 +299,7 @@ https://github.com/elastic/beats/compare/v7.0.0-alpha2...master[Check the HEAD d
 - Fix incorrect field name appending to `related.hash` in `threatintel.abusechmalware` ingest pipeline. {issue}25151[25151] {pull}25674[25674]
 - Add improvements to the azure activitylogs and platformlogs ingest pipelines. {pull}26148[26148]
 - Fix `kibana.log` pipeline when `event.duration` calculation becomes a Long. {issue}24556[24556] {pull}25675[25675]
+- Clone value when copy fields in processors to avoid crash. {issue}19206[19206] {pull}20500[20500]
 
 *Heartbeat*
 
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields.go b/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields.go
index 44c13f41c8a..43a797e0fd5 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields.go
+++ b/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields.go
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ func (f *copyFields) copyField(from string, to string, fields common.MapStr) err
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not fetch value for key: %s, Error: %s", from, err)
 	}
 
-	_, err = fields.Put(to, value)
+	_, err = fields.Put(to, cloneValue(value))
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("could not copy value to %s: %v, %+v", to, value, err)
 	}
@@ -114,3 +114,24 @@ func (f *copyFields) copyField(from string, to string, fields common.MapStr) err
 func (f *copyFields) String() string {
 	return "copy_fields=" + fmt.Sprintf("%+v", f.config.Fields)
 }
+
+// cloneValue returns a shallow copy of a map. All other types are passed
+// through in the return. This should be used when making straight copies of
+// maps without doing any type conversions.
+func cloneValue(value interface{}) interface{} {
+	switch v := value.(type) {
+	case common.MapStr:
+		return v.Clone()
+	case map[string]interface{}:
+		return common.MapStr(v).Clone()
+	case []interface{}:
+		len := len(v)
+		newArr := make([]interface{}, len)
+		for idx, val := range v {
+			newArr[idx] = cloneValue(val)
+		}
+		return newArr
+	default:
+		return value
+	}
+}
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields_test.go b/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields_test.go
index 5dacf79dddd..8652ea87e78 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields_test.go
+++ b/libbeat/processors/actions/copy_fields_test.go
@@ -121,6 +121,29 @@ func TestCopyFields(t *testing.T) {
 				"message":          42,
 			},
 		},
+		"copy map from nested key message.original to top level field message_copied": {
+			FromTo: fromTo{
+				From: "message.original",
+				To:   "message_copied",
+			},
+			Input: common.MapStr{
+				"message": common.MapStr{
+					"original": common.MapStr{
+						"original": "original",
+					},
+				},
+			},
+			Expected: common.MapStr{
+				"message": common.MapStr{
+					"original": common.MapStr{
+						"original": "original",
+					},
+				},
+				"message_copied": common.MapStr{
+					"original": "original",
+				},
+			},
+		},
 	}
 
 	for name, test := range tests {