CVE-2026-75538 json
A Signed Length Overflow in Erlang/OTP's inet TCP Driver Overflows the Receive Buffer Into BEAM VM Memory From an Unauthenticated Peer
published 2mo ago modified 14h ago also EUVD-2026-69242 , GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm
Unreviewed: the maintainers' own advisory
Published by the maintainers on their GitHub repository erlang/otp. GitHub has not reviewed it into the GitHub Advisory Database, so the affected packages and versions are the maintainers' word. Read the full advisory on GitHub.
- cvss
- 8.2
- version 4.0, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.9%
- EPSS 0.9% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 58%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
An attacker that connects to an open Erlang TCP port that uses the inet driver with {packet,4} mode can use a signed overflow in an incorrect packet length calculation to overflow the receive buffer into the VM allocator area and beyond up to about 2 GB.
This would easily trash the allocated block's allocator metadata footer, and the next block, if any, and most likely cause the BEAM VM to crash. Utilizing this with precision enough to achieve Remote Code Execution would be extremely unfeasible.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 27.3.4.17, OTP 28.5.0.6, and OTP 29.0.6, corresponding to erts from 6.0 before 15.2.7.13, 16.4.0.6, and 17.0.6. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to erts before 6.0, is affected is unknown.
Patch / fix
- Erlang OTP 15.2.7.13, 16.4.0.6, 17.0.6, 27.3.4.17, 28.5.0.6, 29.0.6
- erlang Debian 13 1:27.3.4.1+dfsg-1+deb13u4
- erlang Debian 14 1:29.0.6+dfsg-1
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-75538
- erlang Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1:24.2.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.7
- erlang Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 1:25.3.2.8+dfsg-1ubuntu4.7
- erlang Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1
- erlang Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2+esm2
- erlang Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1+esm3
- erlang Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 1:20.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2+esm3
- erlang Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 1:22.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu0.5+esm2
ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-75538
Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0
- erlang27 hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-et hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-wx hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-ftp hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-ssh hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-ssl hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-asn1 hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
- erlang27-edoc hummingbird 1 27.3.4.17-1.hum1
red hat advisories RHSA-2026:63160
Is CVE-2026-75538 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.
Check with FencerVendor advisories
What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.
red hat product security vex CVE-2026-75538 updated cvss 7.5
erlang: Erlang/OTP: Remote denial of service via signed length overflow in TCP driver
-
Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 (Queens) erlang, erlang-ic, erlang-ftp, erlang-ose, erlang-ssh, erlang-ssl, +36 more Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 erlang, erlang-ssl, erlang-asn1, erlang-erts, erlang-hipe, erlang-sasl, +15 more Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 erlang, erlang-ssl, erlang-asn1, erlang-erts, erlang-sasl, erlang-snmp, +14 more Red Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0 erlangaffected: no fix available
-
Red Hat Hardened Images erlang27 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, erlang27-et 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, erlang27-wx 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, erlang27-ftp 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, erlang27-ssh 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, erlang27-ssl 27.3.4.17-1.hum1, +33 morefixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:63160
Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
- Assessed
- 2mo ago
Exploit prediction
0.85% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 58% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-11).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 4.0 | 8.2 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| CNA | 4.0 | 8.2 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
Affected products
- Erlang OTP
Classification
References
-
github.com
/erlang/otp/commit/08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b
patch
-
github.com
/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm
vendor-advisory, advisory
-
cna.erlef.org
/cves/CVE-2026-75538.html
related
-
osv.dev
/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-75538
related
- erlang.org /doc/system/versions.html#order-of-versions
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-75538
- NVD CVE-2026-75538
- Maintainer advisory GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm
Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.
The maintainers of erlang/otp published their own advisory on GitHub. Reviewed sources take precedence over it.
CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.