diff --git a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.mock.ts b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.mock.ts
index 9585c40e6a161..d8c1b8edb9558 100644
--- a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.mock.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.mock.ts
@@ -14,10 +14,7 @@ jest.mock('../../../../elasticsearch', () => {
   return { getErrorMessage: mockGetEsErrorMessage };
 });
 
-// Mock these functions to return empty results, as this simplifies test cases and we don't need to exercise alternate code paths for these
-jest.mock('@kbn/es-query', () => {
-  return { nodeTypes: { function: { buildNode: jest.fn() } } };
-});
+// Mock this function to return empty results, as this simplifies test cases and we don't need to exercise alternate code paths for these
 jest.mock('../search_dsl', () => {
   return { getSearchDsl: jest.fn() };
 });
diff --git a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.ts b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.ts
index 7ccacffb9a4d2..4968340335627 100644
--- a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.test.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ describe('deleteLegacyUrlAliases', () => {
   }
 
   const type = 'obj-type';
-  const id = 'obj-id';
+  const id = 'id-1:'; // include a colon (special character) in the object ID to implicitly assert that the kuery node builder handles it gracefully
 
   it('throws an error if namespaces includes the "all namespaces" string', async () => {
     const namespaces = [ALL_NAMESPACES_STRING];
diff --git a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.ts b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.ts
index 4d38afeac6eaa..33b6b7bc347ba 100644
--- a/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.ts
+++ b/src/core/server/saved_objects/service/lib/legacy_url_aliases/delete_legacy_url_aliases.ts
@@ -63,8 +63,8 @@ export async function deleteLegacyUrlAliases(params: DeleteLegacyUrlAliasesParam
   }
 
   const { buildNode } = esKuery.nodeTypes.function;
-  const match1 = buildNode('is', `${LEGACY_URL_ALIAS_TYPE}.targetType`, type);
-  const match2 = buildNode('is', `${LEGACY_URL_ALIAS_TYPE}.targetId`, id);
+  const match1 = buildNode('is', getKueryKey('targetType'), type);
+  const match2 = buildNode('is', getKueryKey('targetId'), `"${id}"`); // Enclose in quotes to escape any special characters like ':' and prevent parsing errors (Technically an object ID can contain a colon)
   const kueryNode = buildNode('and', [match1, match2]);
 
   try {
@@ -107,3 +107,8 @@ export async function deleteLegacyUrlAliases(params: DeleteLegacyUrlAliasesParam
 function throwError(type: string, id: string, message: string) {
   throw new Error(`Failed to delete legacy URL aliases for ${type}/${id}: ${message}`);
 }
+
+function getKueryKey(attribute: string) {
+  // Note: these node keys do NOT include '.attributes' for type-level fields because we are using the query in the ES client (instead of the SO client)
+  return `${LEGACY_URL_ALIAS_TYPE}.${attribute}`;
+}