Elasticsearch is widely used; RCE via uploaded ML models could broadly disrupt organizations and attract public attention.
CVE-2026-72642
Malicious ML model upload in Elasticsearch can cause heap corruption and possible RCE.
Is CVE-2026-72642 being exploited?
Not confirmed. CVE-2026-72642 does not appear in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, which records only exploitation that has been observed and reported publicly. That is evidence of absence of a report, not evidence the flaw is unattacked. EPSS currently estimates a 0.34% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How severe is CVE-2026-72642?
CVE-2026-72642 is rated High with a CVSS score of 8.8. Severity describes how bad exploitation would be, not how likely it is: pair it with exploitation evidence before deciding what to patch first.
Is there a patch for CVE-2026-72642?
Yes. A fix has been recorded for CVE-2026-72642. The vendor advisory is the authority on the exact fixed version — apply it from there rather than from a summary.
What does CVE-2026-72642 affect?
CVE-2026-72642 affects Elasticsearch (native inference / model deployment). Confirm the exact affected versions against the vendor advisory before deciding you are exposed.
What should I do about CVE-2026-72642?
Restrict model uploads, block untrusted models, monitor inference processes, apply vendor patch ASAP.
Exploitation status reflects CISA's KEV catalog as we last synced it. Check the catalog directly.
Uploaded malicious model can read/write out-of-bounds, causing heap corruption and potentially arbitrary code execution in Elasticsearch's inference process.
Immediate action required
- affected>= 8.19.0 and <= 8.19.19
- affected>= 9.4.0 and <= 9.4.4
- affected9.5.0
As published in the CVE Program record. A version outside these ranges is not a statement that it is unaffected — vendors sometimes understate a range, and distribution-backported builds carry upstream numbers that do not reflect what was patched into them.