CVE-2026-72639Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value in Elasticsearch Highlighting Leading to Denial of Service
Updated under an hour ago ()
Does this affect you?
It affects Elasticsearch. Add what you run to find out whether that includes you.
No exploitation reported and no EPSS estimate yet.
Do this next
Free account, 1 product
Elasticsearch does not enforce an upper bound on a user-supplied count accepted by a search highlighting option, and the allocation derived from that count is not accounted against any circuit breaker. An authenticated user holding only read privileges on a single searchable index can submit one small search request that causes the node to reserve an excessively large internal data structure. The allocation occurs before the existing highlighting safety limits are evaluated, so memory exhaustion raises a fatal error that terminates the Elasticsearch node process. This results in a denial of service for the affected node and degrades cluster routing and health. The defect is not volumetric and does not depend on the size of the indexed data, so a single request is sufficient.
- CVSS
- 6.5 MEDIUM (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-789
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- Not loaded for this CVE
- Assigned by
- elastic
- NVD analysis
- Analyzed
- Record last updated
- Aug 13, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
Affected products
Elastic Elasticsearch elastic:elasticsearch (from the name) | from 8.19.0 through 8.19.19; from 9.3.0 through 9.5.0 | CNA record |
elastic elasticsearch elastic:elasticsearch | from 8.19.0 before 8.19.20; from 9.3.0 before 9.4.5; from 9.5.0 before 9.5.1 | NVD |
References
- https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-8-19-20-9-4-5-9-5-1-security-update-esa-2026-120/389503vendor-advisory
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.