Uncontrolled Recursion (CWE-674) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via a specially crafted search request submitted by a low-privileged authenticated user. A user with read-level index access can submit a request that triggers unbounded recursive processing within the Elasticsearch query evaluation component, causing a fatal error that terminates the affected node. In single-node deployments, this results in complete service outage; in multi-node clusters, it causes repeated node restarts and sustained availability degradation.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). A low-privileged authenticated user with permission to execute EQL sequence queries against an index they control can send a specially crafted query that triggers excessive memory consumption, causing the Elasticsearch node to crash.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Exponential Data Expansion (CAPEC-197). An authenticated user may submit a specially crafted query to the ES|QL engine that causes exponential CPU consumption during query evaluation. Because the resource exhaustion persists beyond query completion, repeated requests can fully exhaust the available query worker resources, rendering ES|QL queries unavailable until the node is restarted.

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) in Elasticsearch can allow an authenticated user with limited index privileges to exploit insufficient authorization controls in the ingest simulation feature. By targeting indices they are not authorized to access directly, the user can cause those indices' configured ingest pipelines to execute and return their output, potentially disclosing data processed or enriched by those pipelines. Additionally, the same feature can be used to retrieve index mapping metadata for indices the user are not authorized to access directly.

Reachable Assertion (CWE-617) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Input Data Manipulation (CAPEC-153). A specially crafted search request containing a null value in a specific query clause causes an internal assertion to be raised during query parsing. Because Elasticsearch treats assertion failures as fatal errors, this terminates the affected node process. A low-privileged authenticated user with read access to at least one index can exploit this condition with a single request to cause a node to terminate, disrupting search availability. In a single-node deployment this fully stops Elasticsearch; in a multi-node cluster it reduces cluster capacity for each affected node.

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Elasticsearch can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). A user with search privileges can submit a specially crafted search request that causes a data node to exhaust available heap memory, resulting in node unavailability and cluster degradation. An attacker could leverage this vulnerability to cause cluster downtime requiring manual intervention to restore service.