1. Home
  2. CVE Database
  3. CVE-2026-72636
MEDIUM · 6.5

CVE-2026-72636

Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in the Elasticsearch wildcard matching helper can lead to a denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). The matcher used to resolve wildcard patterns again...

Vulnerability Description

Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in the Elasticsearch wildcard matching helper can lead to a denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). The matcher used to resolve wildcard patterns against names is implemented recursively and had no bound on recursion depth or on the total number of match operations performed. A search request containing a wildcard pattern with a large number of wildcard groups, evaluated against a sufficiently long name, exhausts the thread stack. Elasticsearch treats a stack overflow as an unrecoverable condition and shuts the node down, so the request terminates the affected node rather than failing gracefully.

CVSS Score

6.5

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH

Affected Products

VendorProductVersions
ElasticElasticsearch>= 8.0.0, < 8.19.20

Related Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-674

References

FAQ

What is CVE-2026-72636?

CVE-2026-72636 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 6.5 (MEDIUM). Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in the Elasticsearch wildcard matching helper can lead to a denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). The matcher used to resolve wildcard patterns again...

How severe is CVE-2026-72636?

CVE-2026-72636 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 6.5/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.

Is there a patch for CVE-2026-72636?

Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Affected products include: Elastic Elasticsearch.