Elk: Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity in Kibana Leading to Denial of Service (CVE-2026-72663)
Description
CVE-2026-72663 is a vulnerability in Kibana where inefficient algorithmic complexity in processing deeply nested expressions in TSVB visualizations can cause denial of service. A crafted input causes synchronous evaluation that consumes the request-processing thread indefinitely, making Kibana unresponsive until restarted. This affects Kibana versions from 8.0.0 up to but not including 8.19.20 and from 9.0.0 up to but not including 9.4.5. A patch is available to address this issue. No known exploits are reported in the wild.
Affected software
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AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability involves inefficient algorithmic complexity (CWE-407) in Kibana's handling of TSVB visualizations. When a specially crafted, deeply nested expression is submitted, the evaluation cost grows disproportionately with input size, causing the synchronous request-processing thread to be consumed indefinitely. This results in denial of service as Kibana stops responding to further requests until the service is restarted. The issue affects Kibana versions >=8.0.0 <8.19.20 and >=9.0.0 <9.4.5. A patch is available to fix this inefficiency.
Potential Impact
An attacker can cause a denial of service by submitting a crafted deeply nested expression to Kibana TSVB visualizations, which consumes the request-processing thread indefinitely. This halts Kibana's ability to respond to any further requests until the service is restarted, potentially disrupting availability for legitimate users. There are no known exploits in the wild at this time.
Mitigation Recommendations
A patch is available for this vulnerability. Users should upgrade Kibana to versions 8.19.20 or later, or 9.4.5 or later, where this issue is fixed. No additional mitigation steps are indicated by the vendor advisory.
Technical Details
- Gcve Source
- db.gcve.eu
- Osv Id
- BIT-kibana-2026-72663
- Osv Schema Version
- 1.6.2
- Aliases
- ["CVE-2026-72663"]
- Ecosystems
- ["Bitnami"]
- Database Specific Severity
- Medium
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6a85b4aaacd9273b49250efc
Added to database: 08/19/2026, 13:50:34 UTC
Last enriched: 08/19/2026, 14:03:43 UTC
Last updated: 10/04/2026, 10:04:22 UTC
Views: 58
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