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CVE-2026-75538 – Denial of Service (Buffer Overflow) – Erlang/OTP inet TCP Driver

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Summary

CVE-2026-75538 is a signed integer overflow (CWE-190) leading to a heap-based buffer overflow (CWE-122) in the Erlang/OTP inet TCP driver when operating in {packet,4} mode. An unauthenticated remote attacker who can connect to an exposed Erlang TCP port using this packet mode can trigger the overflow, most likely crashing the BEAM VM. The issue carries a CVSS v4.0 base score of 8.2 (High).

Technical details

  • Root cause: an incorrect packet length calculation in the inet driver contains a signed overflow.
  • Trigger conditions: the target port must be configured to use the inet driver with {packet,4} framing; the attacker sends a crafted packet with a length field that triggers the overflow.
  • Attack vector: network, requires only a TCP connection to the exposed Erlang port; no authentication or user interaction is required.
  • Impact: the overflow can write past the receive buffer into the VM allocator area and beyond (up to ~2 GB), corrupting allocator metadata and adjacent memory blocks. This is expected to crash the BEAM VM (denial of service); achieving remote code execution via this path is considered extremely unfeasible.

Affected software

  • Erlang/OTP versions 17.0 up to (but not including) 27.3.4.17
  • Erlang/OTP 28.0 up to (but not including) 28.5.0.6
  • Erlang/OTP 29.0 up to (but not including) 29.0.6
  • Corresponding erts versions: 6.0 up to (but not including) 15.2.7.13, 16.0 up to (but not including) 16.4.0.6, and 17.0 up to (but not including) 17.0.6
  • Whether OTP releases prior to 17.0 (erts before 6.0) are affected is unknown

Severity

CVSS v4.0 Base Score: 8.2 (High)
Vector: 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

Mitigation and recommended actions

  • Immediate: Upgrade to OTP 27.3.4.17, OTP 28.5.0.6, OTP 29.0.6, or later (corresponding erts 15.2.7.13, 16.4.0.6, or 17.0.6), depending on release track.
  • If patching is not immediately possible:
    • Configure {packet_size, MaxPacketSize} on affected sockets to a value significantly less than 2^31 to limit the achievable overflow.
    • Avoid exposing TCP listeners using {packet,4} mode to untrusted networks; restrict access via firewall rules or network segmentation.

References

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