Medium severity · published Aug 13, 2026
CVE-2026-72645
Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service
6.5
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (CWE-789) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). An authenticated user holding only read privileges on a single index can submit one small, specially crafted search request that causes an excessively large memory allocation, exhausting the JVM heap and terminating the affected node.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 36% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
EL
Elasticsearch · Elastic
8.0.0 through 8.19.19; 9.0.0 through 9.4.4; 9.5.0 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72645
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72645
Vendor Advisory
https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-8-19-20-9-4-5-9-5-1-security-update-esa-2026-116/389502
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