ElasticSearch Simulate Pipeline Recursion DoS via Self-Referential JSON
CVE-2026-72683 Published on August 13, 2026
Uncontrolled Recursion in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service
A flaw in Elasticsearch allows an authenticated user with the privileges required to invoke the simulate pipeline API endpoint (https://www.elastic.co/docs/api/doc/elasticsearch/operation/operation-ingest-simulate) to submit a request that causes a self-referential data structure to be created. When a specific internal component later processes that structure, the operation recurses without bound and raises a fatal error that is not handled by the surrounding execution path, terminating the affected node process and resulting in a denial of service.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-72683 can be exploited 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.
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-2026-72683 has been classified to as a Stack Exhaustion vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-72683
Want to know whenever a new CVE is published for Elasticsearch? stack.watch will email you.
Affected Versions
Elasticsearch:- Version 5.0.0, <= 8.19.18 is affected.
- Version 9.3.0, <= 9.3.7 is affected.
- Version 9.4.0, <= 9.4.3 is affected.