CVE-2024-43709 — elasticsearch
MEDIUMCVE-2024-43709 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-770 vulnerability in org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch. A fix is available for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Elasticsearch allocation of resources without limits or throttling leads to crash
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-43709.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch☕org.elasticsearch:elasticsearchReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
An allocation of resources without limits or throttling in Elasticsearch can lead to an OutOfMemoryError exception resulting in a crash via a specially crafted query using an SQL function.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | all versions | 7.17.21org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:7.17.21 |
| ☕Maven | org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.13.3 | 8.13.3org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch:8.13.3 |
Affected Products
elasticsearchelasticDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.elasticsearch:elasticsearch to 7.17.21 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-43709 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Red Hat rated this issue as moderate because successful exploitation results in an application level denial-of-service condition only, without any impact on confidentiality or integrity. The vulnerability requires an authenticated user to submit a specially crafted SQL query, and while it can crash the Elasticsearch…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-43709 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-43709 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.