Detections
Analytics

Elasticsearch 5.x < 8.19.19 / 9.3.x < 9.3.8 / 9.4.x < 9.4.4 DoS (ESA-2026-75)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 338337

Synopsis

The remote host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of Elasticsearch installed on the remote host is 5.x prior to 8.19.19, or 9.3.x prior to 9.3.8, or 9.4.x prior to 9.4.4. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ESA-2026-75 advisory.

 - A flaw in Elasticsearch allows an authenticated user with the privileges required to invoke the simulate pipeline API endpoint 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. (CVE-2026-72683)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Elasticsearch version 8.19.19, 9.3.8, or 9.4.4 or later as appropriate for your release branch.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?2d8ac5b9

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 338337

File Name: elasticsearch_ESA-2026-75.nasl

Version: 1.2

Type: Combined

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 8/20/2026

Updated: 8/21/2026

Configuration: Enable thorough checks (optional)

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 5

Percentile: 93.82

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-72683

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.5

Temporal Score: 5.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:elastic:elasticsearch, cpe:/a:elasticsearch:elasticsearch

Required KB Items: installed_sw/Elasticsearch

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 8/13/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/13/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-72683

CWE: 674