Elasticsearch Recursion DoS via Custom Analysis
CVE-2026-72638 Published on August 13, 2026

Uncontrolled Recursion in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service
Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Input Data Manipulation (CAPEC-153). An authenticated user holding only low-privileged index creation permissions can submit a single request containing a specially crafted, malformed custom analysis definition that is resolved recursively without a cycle or depth check, exhausting the thread stack and terminating the affected node.

NVD

Vulnerability Analysis

CVE-2026-72638 is exploitable with network access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have no impact on confidentiality and integrity, and a high impact on availability.

Attack Vector:
NETWORK
Attack Complexity:
LOW
Privileges Required:
LOW
User Interaction:
NONE
Scope:
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact:
NONE
Integrity Impact:
NONE
Availability Impact:
HIGH

Weakness Type

What is a Stack Exhaustion Vulnerability?

The product does not properly control the amount of recursion which takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.

CVE-2026-72638 has been classified to as a Stack Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.


Products Associated with CVE-2026-72638

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Elasticsearch
 

Affected Versions

Elasticsearch: