# CVE-2026-72687: Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value in Elasticsearch Leading to Denial of Service

> A low-privileged user can cause a fatal out-of-memory crash in Elasticsearch by submitting a request with a forged identifier, leading to denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 13 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 13 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BIT-elasticsearch-2026-72687, CLEANSTART-2026-BL26751, CLEANSTART-2026-ZB19187, GHSA-gf23-7gr9-6992, MINI-28wx-wgv4-qw9v, MINI-33xr-97r2-6j2v, MINI-36w5-5h6x-5j86, MINI-69f5-vwx3-g3p5, MINI-9756-65j6-xm4q, MINI-ccqv-qfcv-5728, MINI-f3mm-fpw5-cp6p, MINI-fg75-3hcj-pw4j, MINI-frpg-2jq8-wq6h, MINI-g3vr-2r9g-ggg7, MINI-g673-24h4-g66x, MINI-gr5g-jfx5-89qp, MINI-hh58-hc3g-xvwf, MINI-j66w-8f64-9xr9, MINI-jmr7-2q8c-3pw7, MINI-m72x-vcc7-xrgp, MINI-p435-6c8g-6h79, MINI-q4wq-qgm3-ghj2, MINI-rjpg-pm22-c6j2, MINI-v5pq-3wv9-8vcj, MINI-vq58-wfjr-hvg8

## What is CVE-2026-72687?

CVE-2026-72687 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Elastic Elasticsearch, published on 13 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

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.

Weakness: CWE-789 (Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-72687?

1 open source package ship an affected version, including elasticsearch. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `elasticsearch` | Bitnami | From 8.0.0 | 8.19.20, 9.4.5, 9.5.1 |

Products: Elastic Elasticsearch.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-72687?

Upgrade elasticsearch to a fixed version for your release line: 8.19.20, 9.4.5 or 9.5.1.

## Is CVE-2026-72687 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72687 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Elastic Elasticsearch

- [CVE-2015-1427](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-1427/): Elasticsearch Groovy Scripting Engine Remote Code Execution (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2014-3120](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3120/): Elasticsearch Remote Code Execution (high 8.1, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2015-5377](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2015-5377/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2026-72649](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72649/): Deserialization of Untrusted Data in Elasticsearch Leading to Remote Code Execution (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2026-72642](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72642/): Use of Out-of-range Pointer Offset in the Elasticsearch Machine Learning Native Inference Process (high 8.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-72687 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-72687 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Elastic Elasticsearch, published on 13 Aug 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-72687 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- elasticsearch (Bitnami): affected from 8.0.0; fixed in 8.19.20, 9.4.5, 9.5.1

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72687/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72687/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-72687
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-72687
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-72687

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-72687/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.