Authenticated node crash via unbounded search recursion
Published Aug 13, 2026 · Updated Aug 13, 2026
Uncontrolled recursion in Elastic Elasticsearch 8.0.0 through 8.19.19 and 9.0.0 through 9.4.4 allows remote authenticated users to crash a node. The default search API retriever framework processes deeply nested request structures without a depth limit until thread-stack exhaustion terminates the node. Read access to one index is sufficient; the reported consequence is node termination, without confidentiality or integrity impact.
Summary
What happened
Uncontrolled recursion in Elastic Elasticsearch 8.0.0 through 8.19.19 and 9.0.0 through 9.4.4 allows remote authenticated users to crash a node. The default search API retriever framework processes deeply nested request structures without a depth limit until thread-stack exhaustion terminates the node. Read access to one index is sufficient; the reported consequence is node termination, without confidentiality or integrity impact.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-72647
- Published
- Aug 13, 2026
- Updated
- Aug 13, 2026
- Vendor
- Elastic
- Product
- Elasticsearch
- Classifications
- CWE-674, CAPEC-230, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Aug 13, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 13, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=8.0.0 <=8.19.19
- Affected versionversion=9.0.0 <=9.4.4
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo