---
id: CVE-2026-103006
title: >-
  Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of
  Service via a specially crafted, deeply nested request submitted to the
  aggregation feature of the search API
summary: >-
  Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of
  Service via a specially crafted, deeply nested request submitted to the
  aggregation feature of the search API. Elasticsearch contains an uncontrolled
  recursion weakn…
severity: medium
cvss: 6.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-674
vendor: Elastic
product: Elasticsearch
affected:
  - Elasticsearch >= 8.0.0 <= 8.19.20
  - Elasticsearch >= 9.0.0 <= 9.4.5
  - Elasticsearch >= 9.5.0 <= 9.5.1
published: '2026-10-06'
updated: '2026-10-06'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-06T20:17:13.730'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-103006'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elasticsearch-8-19-21-9-4-6-9-5-2-security-update-esa-2026-196/390870
    label: security@elastic.co
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-10-06T19:53:13.913756Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-10-06T20:16:42.479Z'
---

## Overview

Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to Denial of Service via a specially crafted, deeply nested request submitted to the aggregation feature of the search API. Elasticsearch contains an uncontrolled recursion weakness in its search aggregation processing. An authenticated user with read access to a single index can submit a specially crafted request containing deeply nested aggregation definitions. Processing this request triggers unbounded recursive execution that exhausts the server process's available resources, causing the affected node to terminate. The node does not recover automatically and requires manual intervention to restore service.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.