The native inference process that Elasticsearch uses to evaluate uploaded machine learning models accepts a model operation that computes a memory address from an offset supplied inside the model, without validating that the offset stays within the bounds of the underlying storage. A user with the privileges required to upload and deploy a trained model can craft a model that reads and writes memory outside the intended allocation. The result is heap corruption that crashes the inference process, and, with sufficient control over the heap layout, could allow arbitrary code execution in the context of that process.
Deserialization of Untrusted Data (CWE-502) in the Elasticsearch machine learning component can lead to remote code execution via Object Injection (CAPEC-586). A specially crafted trained model artifact could cause attacker-controlled logic to execute with a materially broader system-call surface than intended. Exploitation requires an authenticated user with sufficient privileges to create and deploy trained models.
Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Elasticsearch can lead to Privilege Escalation via a delegated administrative privilege whose scope is not fully enforced during authorization checks. Elasticsearch contains an incorrect authorization weakness in a configurable, non-default privilege that lets an administrator delegate limited role-management capability to another user, scoped to specific indices. The authorization check that enforces this scoping does not correctly account for a role-definition setting that can expand the matched index set. A user holding this delegated privilege with a broadly-scoped index pattern can exploit this inconsistency by updating their own assigned role to gain access to indices that should remain restricted, including internal security data. This can enable further escalation up to full administrative control of the cluster.
Missing Authorization (CWE-862) in the Elasticsearch custom inference service can lead to information disclosure via Privilege Abuse (CAPEC-122). A user holding only inference execution privileges could cause outbound inference traffic to be directed to a destination of their choosing and could cause administrator-provisioned credentials to be exposed.
Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (CWE-639) in Elasticsearch can lead to Information Disclosure via a specially crafted cross-cluster search request that references an unauthorized shard identifier. Elasticsearch contains an authorization bypass weakness in its handling of cross-cluster search requests made through the Remote Cluster Security (RCS) 2.0 model. An authorization check validates a request against one identifying attribute of the target shard, while a separate, independently-supplied identifying attribute in the same request determines which shard is actually accessed. A holder of a cross-cluster API key authorized for one index can craft a request whose two identifying attributes refer to different indices, causing the request to be authorized against an index they can access while actually operating against a different, unauthorized index. This can expose that index's document contents, field mappings, and other metadata, and in limited cases allows modification of retention-lease state on the unauthorized index.
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.
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.
Elasticsearch does not validate a size value taken from a user-supplied input before that value is used to reserve memory for an internal data structure. An authenticated user holding only read privileges can submit a single small crafted request to a product API endpoint that causes the node to attempt an excessively large allocation. The resulting memory exhaustion raises a fatal error that terminates the Elasticsearch node process, causing a denial of service for the affected node and degrading cluster health. The defect is not volumetric, so a single request is sufficient regardless of the heap size configured on the target node.
A flaw in Elasticsearch allows a low-privileged authenticated user to submit a single small request containing a forged opaque identifier. Elasticsearch decodes and deserializes the identifier before confirming that it was legitimately issued by the cluster, and a size value carried inside the identifier drives an allocation that is neither capped nor accounted for by the available memory-usage controls. The resulting out-of-memory condition is fatal and terminates the affected node process, resulting in a denial of service.
A flaw in Elasticsearch allows a low-privileged authenticated user to submit a single request containing a crafted user-supplied input. A specific internal component validates the input using a recursive routine and applies no bound to the length of the value being validated, so the validation causes the thread to exhaust its stack. The resulting fatal error is not handled by the surrounding execution paths and terminates the affected node process, producing a denial of service.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130)
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130).
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130)
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130)
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130).
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130)
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). A low-privileged authenticated user can submit a specially crafted query that causes uncontrolled memory growth in the query processing engine, resulting in an out-of-memory condition that terminates the Elasticsearch node. The condition can be triggered repeatedly, including by queries embedded in shared resources, causing persistent cluster unavailability.
Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of Service via a specially crafted, deeply nested request submitted to the aggregation feature of the search API. Elasticsearch contains an uncontrolled recursion weakness in its search aggregation processing. An authenticated user with read access to a single index can submit a specially crafted request containing deeply nested aggregation definitions. Processing this request triggers unbounded recursive execution that exhausts the server process's available resources, causing the affected node to terminate. The node does not recover automatically and requires manual intervention to restore service.
Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value (CWE-789) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). An authenticated user with connector management privileges could cause the cluster to allocate an uncontrolled amount of memory when connector resources with an excessively large description field are created and subsequently accessed, exhausting available heap memory and crashing the affected node.
Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can allow an authenticated user with low privileges to terminate an Elasticsearch node, resulting in denial of service, via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130).
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (CWE-770) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of Service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). Elasticsearch enforces a size limit on the user-supplied metadata field for each individual template resource, but does not limit the total memory used when multiple such resources are retrieved together. A user holding the manageindextemplates cluster privilege can register multiple resources each within the individual limit. Retrieving them together materializes all of their metadata values in memory at once, exhausting available heap and causing the affected node to fail with an out-of-memory error, resulting in a denial of service.
Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of Service via a specially crafted request that causes the server to construct and process a deeply nested data structure with no bound on recursion depth. Elasticsearch contains an uncontrolled recursion weakness in how it builds and serializes geometry values produced by scripted runtime fields. Unlike geometry supplied as text, which is subject to a nesting-depth limit, geometry constructed from a script's output is not bounded. An authenticated user with read access to a single index can submit a request defining such a field with a script that produces a deeply nested structure. Processing this request recurses past the available stack space, causing the affected node to terminate. The node does not recover automatically on all deployments and may require manual intervention to restore service.
Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request Smuggling') (CWE-444) in Elasticsearch can lead to information disclosure via HTTP Request Smuggling (CAPEC-33). Under specific proxy deployment configurations, a network attacker could obtain confidential responses intended for other authenticated users.
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130)
Inefficient Regular Expression Complexity (CWE-1333) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Regular Expression Exponential Blowup (CAPEC-492). The ES|QL CHUNK function's recursive chunking strategy accepts a list of user-supplied regular expressions used as text-splitting separators, without validating their computational complexity or bounding their execution time. An authenticated user with read access to any text-based index can submit a specially crafted regular expression that triggers catastrophic backtracking, consuming excessive CPU on Elasticsearch worker threads and degrading query throughput for other tenants on the affected node. The cluster does not crash as a result of this issue.