diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1363b891..7cbfd835 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+## 11.15.8
+  - Fixes a regression introduced in 11.14.0 which could prevent Logstash 8.8 from establishing a connection to Elasticsearch for Central Management and Monitoring core features [#1141](https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-output-elasticsearch/issues/1141)
+
 ## 11.15.7
   - Fixes a regression introduced in 11.14.0 which could prevent a connection from being established to Elasticsearch in some SSL configurations [#1138](https://github.com/logstash-plugins/logstash-output-elasticsearch/issues/1138)
 
diff --git a/lib/logstash/outputs/elasticsearch.rb b/lib/logstash/outputs/elasticsearch.rb
index 992db40a..391be560 100644
--- a/lib/logstash/outputs/elasticsearch.rb
+++ b/lib/logstash/outputs/elasticsearch.rb
@@ -283,11 +283,10 @@ class LogStash::Outputs::ElasticSearch < LogStash::Outputs::Base
   def initialize(*params)
     super
     setup_ecs_compatibility_related_defaults
+    setup_ssl_params!
   end
 
   def register
-    setup_ssl_params!
-
     if !failure_type_logging_whitelist.empty?
       log_message = "'failure_type_logging_whitelist' is deprecated and in a future version of Elasticsearch " +
         "output plugin will be removed, please use 'silence_errors_in_log' instead."
diff --git a/logstash-output-elasticsearch.gemspec b/logstash-output-elasticsearch.gemspec
index 80fb6d13..e335d288 100644
--- a/logstash-output-elasticsearch.gemspec
+++ b/logstash-output-elasticsearch.gemspec
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.name            = 'logstash-output-elasticsearch'
-  s.version         = '11.15.7'
+  s.version         = '11.15.8'
   s.licenses        = ['apache-2.0']
   s.summary         = "Stores logs in Elasticsearch"
   s.description     = "This gem is a Logstash plugin required to be installed on top of the Logstash core pipeline using $LS_HOME/bin/logstash-plugin install gemname. This gem is not a stand-alone program"