CVE-2026-75538

A Signed Length Overflow in Erlang/OTP's inet TCP Driver Overflows the Receive Buffer Into BEAM VM Memory From an Unauthenticated Peer

HIGH

8.2

CVSS Score

Published: September 1, 2026 at 02:48 PM UTC

Updated: September 8, 2026 at 02:17 AM UTC

1 product affected across 1 vendorErlang /otp

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Severity

HIGH8.2

Exploit prediction

EPSS 0.9%

SSVC

No known exploit

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Erlang /otp · Erlang

95%

v < 27.3.4.1716.0 ≤ v < 16.4.0.617.0 ≤ v < 17.0.617.0 ≤ v < 27.3.4.1728.0 ≤ v < 28.5.0.629.0 ≤ v < 29.0.66.0 ≤ v < 15.2.7.1316.0 17.0 28.0 29.0 6.084adefa331c4159d432d22840663c38f155cd4c1

Vendor states this is fixed in 08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b (fixed)

Affected range stops below 15.2.7.13, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 16.4.0.6, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 17.0.6, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 27.3.4.17, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 28.5.0.6, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Affected range stops below 29.0.6, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Vendor states this is fixed in 17.0 (unknown)

Vendor states this is fixed in 6.0 (unknown)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

Patch and advisory references

References (4)

Vendor Advisory

Source: cverecord

https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm

Source: cverecord

https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-75538.html

Source: cverecord

https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-75538

Patch

Source: cverecord

https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.2HIGHEEF

Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED

CWE

CWE-190CWE-122

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