Description
Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Input Data Manipulation (CAPEC-153). A specially crafted search request containing a null value in a specific query clause causes an internal assertion to be raised during query parsing. Because Elasticsearch treats assertion failures as fatal errors, this terminates the affected node process. A low-privileged authenticated user with read access to at least one index can exploit this condition with a single request to cause a node to terminate, disrupting search availability. In a single-node deployment this fully stops Elasticsearch; in a multi-node cluster it reduces cluster capacity for each affected node.
Affected products
elastic: elasticsearch
References1
- discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-8-19-19-9-3-8-9-4-4-security… Vendor Advisory
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
6.5
MEDIUM
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 0% percentile: 37 · as of 14 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-617
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