CVE-2026-72639: elastic elasticsearch

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-72639 is a medium (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in elastic elasticsearch. EPSS estimates a 0.42% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 35.2% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 13-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 13-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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.

• CWE-789Memory Allocation with Excessive Size ValueThe 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.