CVE-2023-31418 | Elasticsearch uncontrolled resource consumption

An issue has been identified with how Elasticsearch handled incoming requests on the HTTP layer. An unauthenticated user could force an Elasticsearch node to exit with an OutOfMemory error by sending a moderate number of malformed HTTP requests. The issue was identified by Elastic Engineering and we have no indication that the issue is known or that it is being exploited in the wild.

Published: 2023-10-26 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-31418 is rated Moderate Risk (55.7/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.76%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-31418

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-06 0.92% 0.76% -0.16%
2 2026-05-19 0.83% 0.92% +0.09%
3 2026-04-06 — 0.83% —

Full EPSS history (23 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-31418

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-31418

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2023-31418

GHSA-2cqf-6xv9-f22w · Severity: high · Ecosystem: maven — Elasticsearch vulnerable to Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-31418

vendor priority summary link
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-31418
suse high CVE-2023-31418 severity important: SUSE including 1 source package names (elasticsearch), 5 product×package rows across 5 product lines (HPE Helion OpenStack 8, SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8, … (5 product lines)): Known Not Affected 5. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-31418/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-31418 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (elasticsearch), 12 status rows across 12 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 8, ignored 2, needs-triage 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-31418

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-31418

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
elastic elasticsearch <= 7.17.12 cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elasticsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
elastic elasticsearch >= 8.0.0, <= 8.8.2 cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elasticsearch:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
elastic elastic_cloud_enterprise <= 2.13.3 cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elastic_cloud_enterprise:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
elastic elastic_cloud_enterprise 3.6.0 cpe:2.3:a:elastic:elastic_cloud_enterprise:3.6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-31418

cvelogic Threat Intelligence