CVE-2026-112336 in Wazuh
Summary
by MITRE • 11/06/2026
Wazuh Manager from 3.0.0 before 4.14.9 contains a memory leak vulnerability in the generic JSON decoder that allows remote attackers to exhaust wazuh-analysisd memory via repeated static fields. Attackers can enroll an agent through passwordless enrollment and send events with duplicate fields such as id, triggering an OOM kill that disables alerting.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/06/2026
The Wazuh Manager software suite, specifically versions ranging from 3.0.0 up to but not including the patched release 4.14.9, contains a critical memory leak vulnerability within its generic JSON decoder component. This flaw resides in the wazuh-analysisd daemon, which is responsible for parsing and analyzing security events received by the system. The root cause of this issue stems from improper handling of duplicate or static fields within incoming JSON payloads. When an attacker sends event data containing repeated field names, such as multiple instances of the id field, the decoder fails to correctly manage memory allocation during the parsing process. Instead of discarding redundant information or overwriting existing values efficiently, the system allocates new memory blocks for each occurrence without releasing previous allocations associated with those fields. This behavior leads to a progressive and unbounded accumulation of unused memory within the wazuh-analysisd process space.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe due to its potential for remote exploitation through standard enrollment mechanisms. An adversary can leverage passwordless agent enrollment, a feature designed to simplify the integration of new endpoints into the monitoring infrastructure, as an initial attack vector. By enrolling under these conditions and subsequently transmitting crafted events with duplicate fields, the attacker triggers the memory leak repeatedly. As the wazuh-analysisd process consumes increasing amounts of system RAM, it eventually reaches the limits imposed by the operating environment or container constraints. This exhaustion leads to an Out-of-Memory condition where the Linux kernel's OOM killer intervenes to terminate the offending process in order to preserve overall system stability. The immediate consequence is the abrupt cessation of the analysis daemon, which effectively disables real-time alerting and log processing capabilities for all monitored agents connected to that manager instance.
From a security classification perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-401, which describes missing release of memory after effective usage, leading to resource exhaustion. The exploitation technique involves sending specific input data to trigger the flaw, categorizing it under CWE-20 as improper input validation where duplicate fields are not handled according to secure coding practices. In terms of tactical mapping within the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability supports the Initial Access tactic via T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application if the enrollment interface is exposed, and more directly impacts Availability through T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service or T1529 System Shutdown/Reboot induced by resource exhaustion. The ability to disable alerting mechanisms represents a significant degradation in defensive posture, allowing potential malicious activities on enrolled agents to go undetected during the window of service disruption.
Mitigation strategies primarily involve upgrading the Wazuh Manager software to version 4.14.9 or later, where this memory management issue has been resolved by implementing stricter validation and efficient handling of JSON structures with duplicate keys. Organizations should also review their enrollment policies; while passwordless enrollment offers convenience, it reduces authentication barriers for new agents. Restricting agent enrollment to authenticated methods can limit the attack surface available to external adversaries attempting to inject malicious events into the analysis pipeline. Additionally, deploying resource monitoring and alerting on system-level metrics such as memory usage of critical daemons like wazuh-analysisd can provide early warning signs of potential abuse before a complete service failure occurs. Regular patch management cycles are essential to ensure that known vulnerabilities in security infrastructure components do not become entry points for denial-of-service attacks or cover tracks during broader intrusion attempts.