CVE-2015-4165
HighSummary
The snapshot API in Elasticsearch before version 1.6.0 is vulnerable when another application exists on the system that can read Lucene files and execute code from them. This allows remote authenticated users to write to and create arbitrary snapshot metadata files, potentially executing arbitrary code.
Risk Assessment
An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to introduce malicious code into the system, potentially leading to serious security breaches and data loss.
Recommendation
It is recommended to upgrade Elasticsearch to version 1.6.0 or later and restrict access to the snapshot API to trusted users.
Other vulnerabilities in Elasticsearch
See all- CVE-2026-72687Medium
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.
- CVE-2026-72686Medium
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.
- CVE-2026-72685Medium
A flaw in Elasticsearch allows a low-privileged authenticated user who can index documents to submit a single small document containing a crafted user-supplied input. Processing one such document occupies a worker thread from a bounded pool for a disproportionate amount of time, degrading the availability of indexing operations on the affected node.
- CVE-2026-72684Medium
A flaw in Elasticsearch allows an authenticated user holding only read privileges to submit a small search request containing a crafted user-supplied input. Processing that input causes a specific internal component to allocate memory without any upper bound, and the allocation occurs outside the scope of the existing memory accounting controls that were intended to constrain it. The resulting out-of-memory condition is fatal and terminates the affected node process, causing a denial of service.
- CVE-2026-72683Medium
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-2026-72679Medium
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-2026-72678Medium
Elasticsearch does not validate a size value from user input before using it to reserve memory for an internal data structure. An authenticated user with read-only privileges can send a single crafted request causing an excessively large allocation. Memory exhaustion raises a fatal error that terminates the node process, causing denial of service and degrading cluster health.
- CVE-2026-72656Medium
Memory allocation with excessive size in ES|QL query processing of Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service. An authenticated user can submit a specially crafted query whose evaluation allocates unbounded heap memory, exhausting available heap on the receiving node and causing the node to become unavailable.
- CVE-2026-72647Medium
Uncontrolled recursion in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service. An authenticated user with read-only privileges on a single index can submit one specially crafted search request whose deeply nested structure is processed without a depth limit, exhausting the thread stack and terminating the affected node.
- CVE-2026-72645Medium
A vulnerability in Elasticsearch allows an authenticated user with read-only privileges on a single index to submit one small, specially crafted search request that causes excessive memory allocation, exhausting the JVM heap and terminating the affected node.
Original NVD description (English source)
The snapshot API in Elasticsearch before 1.6.0 when another application exists on the system that can read Lucene files and execute code from them, is accessible by the attacker, and the Java VM on which Elasticsearch is running can write to a location that the other application can read and execute from, allows remote authenticated users to write to and create arbitrary snapshot metadata files, and potentially execute arbitrary code.

