CVE
Grafana memory exhaustion DoS in Elasticsearch index patterns
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- Fixed in Grafana OSS 12.4.15 · Elasticsearch Datasource 12.9.6 · Grafana Enterprise 12.4.15
- Who is exposed
- Not reported
Do first: Upgrade to a fixed version: Grafana OSS 12.4.15 · Elasticsearch Datasource 12.9.6 · Grafana Enterprise 12.4.15.
- Last modified
- Whether it needs action now or is a reference record, by fixed rules, with why. Last checked is when cve.now last re-read it.What do these mean? →
- Reference
- Last checked
- FIRST's estimate of the chance attackers exploit it in the next 30 days, updated daily.What do these mean? →
- 0.24% · 14th percentile
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 10/100 · provisional
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
Grafana OSS, Grafana Enterprise, and the Elasticsearch Datasource are affected. A user with at least low-privilege access (such as the Viewer role) can remotely send a single small query with an extreme time range, causing the server to run out of memory and crash, which denies service to other users. The flaw applies only to Elasticsearch data sources configured with a time-based index pattern; those using a static index name are not affected.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
Read the original description
Grafana is an open-source platform for monitoring and observability.
When an Elasticsearch data source is configured with a time-based index pattern, Grafana generated one index name for every interval in the requested query time range without any upper limit. A user with permission to query the data source, which includes users holding only the Viewer role in a default configuration, could submit a single small query with an extreme time range and cause the server to allocate memory until it was terminated. The allocation occurred before any request was sent to Elasticsearch, so the condition applied whether or not the Elasticsearch cluster was reachable.
Data sources configured with a static index name are not affected.
cve.now Index
- Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure3/25Reachable over the network · Unknown: No advisory context yet
- Reach?/20Unknown. No tracked technology or package matched
- Severity6.5/10CVSS 6.5
- No patch0/5No signal
What would change the score
- Would score about 65 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 60 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 29 if advisories confirm default setups are exposed
What to do
Upgrade to a fixed version: Grafana OSS 12.4.15 · Elasticsearch Datasource 12.9.6 · Grafana Enterprise 12.4.15.
Check your systems with an agent
Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.
Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-81843 (Memory exhaustion denial of service in Elasticsearch data source index patterns), using the cve.now data below.
Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.
What cve.now has for CVE-2026-81843 (entry last updated 2026-11-12):
Affected:
- Grafana Grafana OSS: from 11.6.0, through 11.6.16; from 12.0.0, through 12.2.10; from 12.3.0, fixed in 12.4.15
- Grafana Elasticsearch Datasource: from 12.4.2, fixed in 12.9.6
- Grafana Grafana Enterprise: from 11.6.0, through 11.6.16; from 12.0.0, through 12.2.10; from 12.3.0, fixed in 12.4.15
Fixed versions: 12.4.15, 12.9.6.
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-81843 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-81843 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.
How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.
Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://grafana.com/security/security-advisories/cve-2026-81843
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.
Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.
Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-81843
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example execute with name cve.get and arguments {"id": "CVE-2026-81843"}.Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- Grafana Grafana OSS
From 11.6.0 · through 11.6.16; From 12.0.0 · through 12.2.10; From 12.3.0 · fixed in 12.4.15
- Grafana Elasticsearch Datasource
From 12.4.2 · fixed in 12.9.6
- Grafana Grafana Enterprise
From 11.6.0 · through 11.6.16; From 12.0.0 · through 12.2.10; From 12.3.0 · fixed in 12.4.15
Evidence 3
Vendor advisory · 1
Establishes: Affected and fixed versions.
- Advisory
CVE record · 2
Establishes: The identifier and description.
- Record
- Record
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-81843
Is CVE-2026-81843 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-81843?
Grafana OSS: from 11.6.0 through 11.6.16; from 12.0.0 through 12.2.10; from 12.3.0 before 12.4.15. Elasticsearch Datasource: from 12.4.2 before 12.9.6. Grafana Enterprise: from 11.6.0 through 11.6.16; from 12.0.0 through 12.2.10; from 12.3.0 before 12.4.15.Source: cve.now feed data
How do I fix CVE-2026-81843?
Upgrade to a fixed version: Grafana OSS 12.4.15 · Elasticsearch Datasource 12.9.6 · Grafana Enterprise 12.4.15.Source: cve.now feed data