A Signed Length Overflow in Erlang/OTP's inet TCP Driver Overflows the Receive Buffer Into BEAM VM Memory From an Unauthenticated Peer
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-75538 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | EEF |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-09-01 15:17:26 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-11-11 14:17:47 UTC |
| Description | 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. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v4.0 8.2 HIGH from 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
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
EPSS: 0.008540000 probability, percentile 0.586060000 (date 2026-11-10)
Problem Types: CWE-122 | CWE-190 | CWE-190 CWE-190 Integer Overflow or Wraparound | CWE-122 CWE-122 Heap-based Buffer Overflow
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | Secondary | 8.2 | HIGH | 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/C... |
| 4.0 | CNA | CVSS | 8.2 | HIGH | 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 |
CVSS v4.0 Breakdown
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
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Erlang | OTP | affected 17.0 * otp | Not specified |
| CNA | Erlang | OTP | affected 6.0 * otp | Not specified |
| CNA | Erlang | OTP | affected 84adefa331c4159d432d22840663c38f155cd4c1 08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b git | Not specified |
| CNA | Erlang | OTP | unaffected 08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b * git | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-75538 | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | osv.dev | |
| github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | |
| github.com/erlang/otp/commit/08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | github.com | |
| www.erlang.org/doc/system/versions.html | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | www.erlang.org | |
| cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-75538.html | 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db | cna.erlef.org | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
Vendor Comments And Credit
Discovery Credit
CNA: Arthur Chan (en)
CNA: David Korczynski (en)
CNA: Adam Korcz (en)
CNA: RaimoNiskanen / Ericsson (en)
CNA: Sverker Eriksson / Ericsson (en)
CNA: John Högberg / Ericsson (en)