CVE-2026-72678 PUBLISHED

Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service

Assigner: elastic
Reserved: 10.08.2026 Published: 13.08.2026 Updated: 13.08.2026

Elasticsearch does not validate a size value taken from a user-supplied input before that value is used to reserve memory for an internal data structure. An authenticated user holding only read privileges can submit a single small crafted request to a product API endpoint that causes the node to attempt an excessively large allocation. The resulting memory exhaustion raises a fatal error that terminates the Elasticsearch node process, causing a denial of service for the affected node and degrading cluster health. The defect is not volumetric, so a single request is sufficient regardless of the heap size configured on the target node.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS Score: 6.5

Product Status

Vendor Elastic
Product Elasticsearch
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 8.19.0 to 8.19.19 (incl.)
  • affected from 9.4.0 to 9.4.4 (incl.)
  • Version 9.5.0 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-789 Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value CWE