CVE-2026-61485 in Lucy
Summary
by MITRE • 08/05/2026
** UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED ** Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value vulnerability in Apache Lucy.
This issue affects Apache Lucy: all versions.
As this project is retired, we do not plan to release a version that fixes this issue. Users are recommended to find an alternative or restrict access to the instance to trusted users.
NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/05/2026
The Memory Allocation with Excessive Size Value vulnerability in Apache Lucy represents a critical memory management flaw that can lead to system instability and potential denial of service conditions. This vulnerability specifically impacts all versions of the Apache Lucy search engine library, which is part of the Apache Lucene ecosystem designed for full-text search capabilities. The flaw manifests when the application attempts to allocate memory blocks with size values that exceed acceptable limits, potentially causing heap overflow conditions or excessive memory consumption patterns.
This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-131 category of "Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size" and can be classified as a memory corruption issue within the software's resource management subsystem. The technical implementation flaw occurs during the allocation process where input validation fails to properly constrain size parameters, allowing malicious or malformed input to trigger excessive memory requests that the system cannot handle gracefully.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple performance degradation to potentially enable more serious security consequences including system crashes, resource exhaustion attacks, and in some scenarios could be leveraged as part of broader exploitation chains. When exploited, the vulnerability can cause applications using Apache Lucy to consume excessive memory resources or crash entirely, leading to service disruption and potential data unavailability for legitimate users. The vulnerability's impact is particularly severe in environments where Apache Lucy serves as a core component of search functionality within larger applications.
From an attack perspective, this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004 which covers "File System Wipe" through resource exhaustion attacks, though it more directly relates to process termination and service disruption rather than direct data destruction. The vulnerability's nature makes it particularly dangerous in multi-tenant environments or public-facing applications where unauthenticated users could potentially trigger the memory allocation issues through crafted search queries or input parameters.
Given that Apache Lucy is a retired project with no planned security updates, organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including network segmentation, access controls, and monitoring for unusual memory consumption patterns. The recommended approach involves restricting access to trusted users only as noted in the vulnerability advisory, implementing application-level input validation, and considering migration to actively maintained search engine alternatives such as Elasticsearch or Apache Solr. Additionally, implementing memory limits and resource quotas on affected systems can help contain potential impacts while planning for long-term replacement solutions.