CVE-2026-63260 in Kibana
Summary
by MITRE • 07/22/2026
Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) in Kibana can lead to denial of service via Excessive Allocation (CAPEC-130). An authenticated attacker with low-privilege access can trigger a denial of service condition in Kibana by sending a specially crafted, oversized request payload. Processing this user-supplied input requires resource-intensive memory allocation that can exhaust the available heap memory in the Kibana process, causing it to crash and become unavailable to all users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/22/2026
Kibana vulnerability CVE-2023-22518 represents a critical uncontrolled resource consumption flaw classified under CWE-400, which specifically manifests as excessive allocation within the application's memory management system. This vulnerability exists in the way Kibana processes user-supplied input data, particularly when handling large request payloads that exceed normal operational parameters. The flaw operates through a direct denial of service attack vector where an authenticated user with minimal privileges can exploit the system's resource allocation mechanisms to consume excessive memory resources.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs during the processing of malformed or oversized request payloads within Kibana's data handling pipelines. When an attacker sends carefully crafted requests that contain excessive data structures, the application's memory allocator attempts to provision memory blocks that grow exponentially beyond normal operational limits. This memory allocation process consumes heap memory rapidly and continuously, leading to a gradual exhaustion of available resources within the Kibana process. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it requires minimal privilege levels to exploit, making it accessible to users who have basic authentication access to the system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to potentially compromise the entire monitoring infrastructure that relies on Kibana for data visualization and analysis. When memory exhaustion occurs, the Kibana process crashes completely, forcing all connected users to lose access to the application and its associated dashboards, logs, and analytics. This disruption affects not only individual user experience but also broader organizational operations that depend on real-time monitoring and alerting capabilities provided by the affected system.
Security practitioners should consider this vulnerability in the context of CAPEC-130 attack patterns which specifically describe excessive allocation scenarios where attackers manipulate resource consumption to achieve denial of service conditions. The threat landscape for this vulnerability includes both automated scanning tools that can identify vulnerable installations and targeted attacks from malicious actors seeking to disrupt business operations. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including request size limiting, memory monitoring, and process isolation techniques to prevent exploitation. Additionally, regular patching and configuration hardening practices should be enforced to address the root cause of this memory management flaw in the application's core processing logic.
The vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental weakness in input validation and resource management within Kibana's architecture, highlighting the importance of implementing proper bounds checking and memory allocation controls. System administrators should monitor heap usage patterns and implement automated alerts when memory consumption exceeds predefined thresholds to detect potential exploitation attempts. This type of vulnerability represents a common attack surface that requires continuous security awareness training for development teams to prevent similar issues in future releases and maintain robust application resilience against resource exhaustion attacks.