Elasticsearch: Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (CVE-2026-72639)
Published Last modified Sources: BSI, CVE.org, OSV
What is affected, what to do
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.
Update elasticsearch to version 8.19.20, Elasticsearch to version 8.19.20.
- Affected
- Elasticsearch
lte 8.19.0..8.19.19 - Elasticsearch
lte 9.3.0..9.5.0
- Elasticsearch
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Metrics
6.5
Priority
XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.
Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v3
6.5
CVSS v3
Severity Medium on the scale from 0 to 10.
Source: BSI, CVE.org, OSV
0.4 %
EPSS score
Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 34.9
Show all metrics
- Severity
- Medium
Priority score
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 66.36
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
XIEM Effective CVSS
XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.
Read in glossary- 6.5
CVSS v3
CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.
Read in glossary- 6.5
EPSS score
The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.
Read in glossary- 0.4 %
- Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
EPSS percentile
The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.
Read in glossary- 34.9
- Elevated — this CVE ranks above at least 10% of all CVEs scored today.
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
CWE
CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.
Read in glossary- CWE-789
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- Handle the vulnerability in regular vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
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.
Source: BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF, cvelistv5, OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), NVD (NIST)
Affected products
The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elastic | Elasticsearch |
|
|
| elastic | elasticsearch |
|
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| Open Source | Elasticsearch |
|
|
Distribution and container packages (2)
Downstream packages (e.g. Bitnami, Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat). Versions refer to the distribution, not the vendor.
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| bitnami | elasticsearch |
|
|
Weakness classes (CWE)
CWE-789Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value
Variant
The product allocates memory based on an untrusted, large size value, but it does not ensure that the size is within expected limits, allowing arbitrary amounts of memory to be allocated.
Entry at MITRE CWE-789
References & sources
- discuss.elastic.cot/elasticsearch-8-19-20-9-4-5-9-5-1-security-update-esa-2026-12…
- NVD (NIST)vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72639web
Reanalysis & status changes
Chronological NVD audit events for this CVE — reanalyses, CVSS updates, CPE diffs.
Initial Analysisnvd@nist.gov
- CPE Configuration: after OR *cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elasticsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 8.19.0 up to (excluding) 8.19.20 *cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elasticsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 9.5.0 up to (excluding) 9.5.1 *cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elasticsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions from (including) 9.3.0 up to (excluding) 9.4.5
- Reference Type: after Elastic: https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-8-19-20-9-4-5-9-5-1-security-update-esa-2026-120/389503 Types: Vendor Advisory