HighCVE-2026-75538

    Erlang OTP: Heap-based Buffer Overflow (CVE-2026-75538)

    Published Last modified Sources: Debian, Ubuntu, CVE.org, OSV, Msrc Update Guide, BSI

    What is affected, what to do

    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.

    Update Erlang OTP to version 27.3.4.17, Erlang OTP to version 28.5.0.6, Erlang OTP to version 29.0.6.

    Affected
    • Erlang OTP lt 17.0..27.3.4.17
    • Erlang OTP lt 28.0..28.5.0.6
    • Erlang OTP lt 29.0..29.0.6
    • Erlang OTP lt 6.0..15.2.7.13
    • Erlang OTP lt 16.0..16.4.0.6
    • Erlang OTP lt 17.0..17.0.6
    Fixed in
    • Erlang OTP 27.3.4.17
    • Erlang OTP 28.5.0.6
    • Erlang OTP 29.0.6
    • Erlang OTP 15.2.7.13
    • Erlang OTP 16.4.0.6
    • Erlang OTP 17.0.6

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    Metrics

    8.2

    Priority

    XIEM Effective CVSS: highest available CVSS rating from NVD and vendor data.

    Source: Vendor (CNA), CVSS v4

    8.2

    CVSS v4

    Severity High on the scale from 0 to 10.

    Source: Debian, Ubuntu, CVE.org, OSV, Msrc Update Guide, BSI

    0.9 %

    EPSS score

    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.

    Source: FIRST EPSS, percentile 58.2

    Show all metrics
    Severity
    High
    Priority (0–325)

    The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?

    Read in glossary
    93.22 Methodology
    Exploit maturity

    An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.

    Read in glossary
    no public PoC known
    XIEM Effective CVSS

    XIEM® is the tiered managed-security operating model from NEOSEC and a registered trademark of NEOSEC GmbH. It extends classic SIEM — the central collection, normalisation and correlation of security-relevant events — with endpoint forensics, network visibility and deception technology, and consolidates them into three building tiers: Sentry, Orchestrate and Command.

    Read in glossary
    8.2 Methodology
    CVSS v4

    CVSS is the globally established, open standard for assessing the technical severity of a vulnerability on a scale from 0 to 10. It describes how easily a flaw can be exploited and what damage it can cause — but not how likely its actual exploitation is. CVSS and the complementary EPSS deliberately answer different questions.

    Read in glossary
    8.2
    EPSS score

    The EPSS score is the absolute model output for an individual vulnerability: the estimated probability of real-world exploitation within the next 30 days, expressed as a value between 0 and 1 (i.e. 0 % to 100 %). A score of 0.42 means „the model estimates a 42 % chance of real-world exploitation within 30 days“.

    Read in glossary
    0.9 %
    Low — model estimates < 1% exploitation likelihood.
    EPSS percentile

    The EPSS percentile is the relative position of a vulnerability within all EPSS-scored CVEs, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. A percentile of 0.90 means „this CVE has a higher EPSS score than 90 % of all other scored CVEs“. Unlike the EPSS score, it is not a probability — but a positioning within a ranking.

    Read in glossary
    58.2
    High — this CVE ranks above the median of all CVEs scored today (rank ≥ 36%).
    KEV status

    The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.

    Read in glossary
    —
    Published
    CISA assessment (SSVC)
    Exploitation: none known · not automatable · Technical impact: partial
    Source: CISA Vulnrichment, as of 1 September 2026
    CWE

    CWE is a catalogue of typical weakness types in software and hardware — such as flawed input validation, unsafe memory handling or poor authentication. Where a CVE names a concrete vulnerability in a concrete product, a CWE describes the underlying class of defect.

    Read in glossary
    CWE-190, CWE-122

    Detection rules

    No NEOSEC detection rule is available for this vulnerability yet.

    Classification under NIS2 and CRA

    Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.

    NIS2

    NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.

    Read in glossary
    High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
    CRA

    The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.

    Read in glossary
    From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
    ISO/IEC 27001

    ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.

    Read in glossary
    Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.

    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, from OTP 28.0 before OTP 28.5.0.6, and from OTP 29.0 before OTP 29.0.6, corresponding to erts from 6.0 before 15.2.7.13, from 16.0 before 16.4.0.6, and from 17.0 before 17.0.6. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to erts before 6.0, is affected is unknown.

    Source: Debian Security Advisories, Ubuntu Security Notices, NVD (NIST), OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities), cvelistv5, Microsoft Security Update Guide, BSI WID Portal, BSI CSAF

    Affected products

    The following versions are affected. Older releases of the same product line are also vulnerable unless stated otherwise.

    Affected products
    Affected versionsFixed in
    ErlangOTP
    • 17.0 – < 17.0.6
    • 28.0 – < 28.5.0.6
    • 29.0 – < 29.0.6
    • 17.0 – < 27.3.4.17
    • 16.0 – < 16.4.0.6
    • 6.0 – < 15.2.7.13
    • 17.0.6
    • 28.5.0.6
    • 29.0.6
    • 27.3.4.17
    • 16.4.0.6
    • 15.2.7.13
    Open SourceErlang/OTP
    • < 28.5.0.6
    • < 27.3.4.17
    • < 29.0.6
    • 28.5.0.6
    • 27.3.4.17
    • 29.0.6

    Vendors and products

    Affected operating systems

    Affected operating systems
    Linuxdebianerlangtrixie
    Linuxubuntuerlangbionic
    Linuxubuntuerlangfocal
    Linuxubuntuerlangjammy
    Linuxubuntuerlangnoble
    Linuxubuntuerlangresolute
    Linuxubuntuerlangtrusty
    Linuxubuntuerlangxenial

    Weakness classes (CWE)

    • CWE-190Integer Overflow or Wraparound

      Base

      The product performs a calculation that can produce an integer overflow or wraparound when the logic assumes that the resulting value will always be larger than the original value. This occurs when an integer value is incremented to a value that is too large to store in the associated representation. When this occurs, the value may become a very small or negative number.

      Entry at MITRE CWE-190

    • CWE-122Heap-based Buffer Overflow

      Variant

      A heap overflow condition is a buffer overflow, where the buffer that can be overwritten is allocated in the heap portion of memory, generally meaning that the buffer was allocated using a routine such as malloc().

      Entry at MITRE CWE-122

    References & sources

    Changes to this CVE

    Who changed this CVE and when: NVD (analysis, affected products, CVSS), the CVE publisher (CNA) and additional providers such as CISA (ADP).

    1. Record modifiedEEF

      1 individual change: Affected versions (publisher)

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      Affected value modified. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/75xxx/CVE-2026-75538.json">CVE-2026-75538</a>

      Source identifier: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db

    2. Record modifiedCISA ADP

      CISA assessment (SSVC): exploitation: none known, automatable: no

      Show the original change
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      SSVC assessmentadded
      —
      {"id":"CVE-2026-75538","role":"CISA Coordinator","options":[{"exploitation":"none"},{"automatable":"no"},{"technicalImpact":"partial"}],"version":"2.0.3","timestamp":"2026-09-01T15:58:11.549801Z"}

      Source identifier: 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    3. ReceivedEEF

      CVSS V4.0: AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

      Weakness type: CWE-190, CWE-122

      Description added or changed

      Show 9 original changes
      Individual changes of this event as published by NVD
      TypeActionBeforeAfter
      Descriptionadded
      —
      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, from OTP 28.0 before OTP 28.5.0.6, and from OTP 29.0 before OTP 29.0.6, corresponding to erts from 6.0 before 15.2.7.13, from 16.0 before 16.4.0.6, and from 17.0 before 17.0.6. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to erts before 6.0, is affected is unknown.
      CVSSadded
      —
      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
      Weakness type (CWE)added
      —
      CWE-190
      Weakness type (CWE)added
      —
      CWE-122
      Affected versions (publisher)added
      —
      New affected value received. <a href="https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/75xxx/CVE-2026-75538.json">CVE-2026-75538</a>
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-75538.html
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm
      Referenceadded
      —
      https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-75538

      Source identifier: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db

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