Detections
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Elasticsearch 8.19.x < 8.19.20 / 9.0.x < 9.4.5 DoS (ESA-2026-81)

medium Nessus Plugin ID 338340

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Synopsis

The remote host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of Elasticsearch installed on the remote host is 8.19.x prior to 8.19.20, or 9.0.x prior to 9.4.5. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ESA-2026-81 advisory.

 - Elasticsearch does not apply its configurable input length restriction to a user-supplied pattern accepted by an intervals query. Compiling a deeply nested pattern drives unbounded recursion that exhausts the thread stack and raises a fatal error, terminating the Elasticsearch node process and causing a denial of service for that node. An authenticated user holding only read-only privileges on a single searchable index can trigger the condition with one small search request. (CVE-2026-72679)

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 8.19.20 or 9.4.5 or later as appropriate for your release branch.

See Also

http://www.nessus.org/u?42fa34c4

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 338340

File Name: elasticsearch_ESA-2026-81.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-2026-72679

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-2026-72679

CWE: 674