---
id: CVE-2026-74039
title: >-
  Wazuh 4.0.0 before 4.14.7 and 5.0.0-beta2 contain a denial of service
  vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers with allow_run_as enabled to
  exhaust CPU resources by submitting arbitrarily deeply nested JSON structures
  to the POS…
summary: >-
  Wazuh 4.0.0 before 4.14.7 and 5.0.0-beta2 contain a denial of service
  vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers with allow_run_as enabled to
  exhaust CPU resources by submitting arbitrarily deeply nested JSON structures
  to the POS…
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-770
  - CWE-1333
vendor: wazuh
product: wazuh
affected:
  - 'wazuh >= 4.0.0, < 4.14.7'
  - wazuh = 5.0.0
patched:
  - wazuh 4.14.7
published: '2026-08-18'
updated: '2026-09-16'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-16T20:27:04.707'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-74039'
references:
  - url: 'https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/pull/37034'
    label: disclosure@vulncheck.com
  - url: 'https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/security/advisories/GHSA-5vh8-34r8-q74q'
    label: disclosure@vulncheck.com
  - url: >-
      https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/wazuh-api-dos-via-deeply-nested-json-auth-context
    label: disclosure@vulncheck.com
  - url: 'https://github.com/wazuh/wazuh/security/advisories/GHSA-5vh8-34r8-q74q'
    label: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
  - exploit-available
epss: 0.00555
epssPercentile: 0.43931
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T21:11:12.282Z'
exploitAvailable: true
ssvc:
  exploitation: poc
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-08-18T18:45:23.398620Z'
---

## Overview

Wazuh 4.0.0 before 4.14.7 and 5.0.0-beta2 contain a denial of service vulnerability that allows authenticated attackers with allow_run_as enabled to exhaust CPU resources by submitting arbitrarily deeply nested JSON structures to the POST /security/user/authenticate/run_as endpoint. Attackers can repeatedly submit malformed auth_context bodies with unlimited nesting depth to cause the API framework to consume excessive CPU, denying service to all other API consumers.

## Affected

- `wazuh >= 4.0.0, < 4.14.7`
- `wazuh = 5.0.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `wazuh 4.14.7`