dbcve.org
ElasticsearchDatabase / datastore · Elastic

CVE-2024-23450

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-03-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 7.17.19 / 8.13.0 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A flaw was discovered in Elasticsearch, where processing a document in a deeply nested pipeline on an ingest node could cause the Elasticsearch node to crash.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

A denial-of-service vulnerability in Elasticsearch allows an attacker to crash an ingest node by submitting a document processed through a deeply nested ingest pipeline. The node crashes due to resource exhaustion or recursion issues when handling documents in pipelines with many nested stages.

MitigationUpgrade Elasticsearch to the vendor-provided patched version. As a workaround, avoid using ingest pipelines with deeply nested processor configurations until the patch can be applied.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
ElasticsearchDatabase / datastore
Affected:>= 7.0.0, < 7.17.19>= 8.0.0, < 8.13.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Elasticsearch version
    Run `curl -X GET 'localhost:9200'` or inspect the version from the elasticsearch process/startup logs. The version is shown in the 'version' field of the cluster health response.
    Affected if The installed version is >= 7.0.0 and < 7.17.19, OR >= 8.0.0 and < 8.13.0.
  2. List all ingest pipelines
    Run `GET /_ingest/pipeline/_all` via the Elasticsearch API to retrieve all pipeline configurations stored in the cluster.
    Affected if Any pipelines exist in the cluster (pipelines must be present for the vulnerability to be exploitable).
  3. Analyze processor nesting depth in pipelines
    Examine each pipeline JSON for the presence of nested processors. Specifically look for 'nested' processors, or any processor (like foreach, date, grok, etc.) that contains other processors within its 'processor' or 'processors' array. Count the maximum depth of nesting in each pipeline.
    Affected if Any pipeline contains processor configurations nested 5 or more levels deep, or shows recursive/repeated nesting patterns that could cause resource exhaustion.
  4. Check for recent ingest node crashes
    Review Elasticsearch logs in /var/log/elasticsearch/ (or the configured log directory) for patterns indicating ingest node restarts, out-of-memory errors, or stack overflow exceptions related to pipeline processing.
    Affected if Ingest nodes have crashed or restarted due to pipeline processing errors since the Elasticsearch version was installed.

You are affected if your Elasticsearch version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND you have ingest pipelines configured with deep processor nesting that could trigger the resource exhaustion condition.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 7.17.19 / 8.13.0 or later
Fixed in 7.17.198.13.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Elasticsearch to the vendor-provided patched version. As a workaround, avoid using ingest pipelines with deeply nested processor configurations until the patch can be applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

Elasticsearch 7.17.19+ or 8.13.0+ (upgrade to the latest patch version in your major branch)

  1. 1. Check current Elasticsearch version using: curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/'
  2. 2. For version 7.x: Upgrade to Elasticsearch 7.17.19 or later (recommended: 7.17.x latest stable)
  3. 3. For version 8.x: Upgrade to Elasticsearch 8.13.0 or later (recommended: 8.13.x latest stable)
  4. 4. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first to verify ingest pipelines function correctly
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify node health: curl -XGET 'localhost:9200/_cluster/health'
  6. 6. Test document ingestion through any existing ingest pipelines to confirm they work without crashes
  7. 7. Plan maintenance window for production upgrade - rolling upgrades are supported but check compatibility
Caveat Rolling upgrades between minor versions are generally supported; review Elastic Stack Upgrade Guide for specific upgrade path requirements and ensure compatibility with other stack components (Kibana, Beats, Logstash)

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Elasticsearch Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-23450 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data