7.5

CVE-2026-42792: erlang erlang\/otp

CVSS: 7.5v3.1HighAnalyzed
AliasesUBUNTU-CVE-2026-42792DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42792
Published 27-07-2026Last modified 28-07-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-42792 is a high (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in erlang erlang\/otp. EPSS estimates a 0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 36.3% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
30/100
0100
Medium · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
7.5/10
010
High · v3.1 (NVD)
EPSS score
0.43%
0%100%
Low · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 6 · Related 5
OPENSUSE-SU-2026:11559-1OPENSUSE-SU-2026:11560-1RHSA-2026:47009SUSE-SU-2026:3579-1SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1USN-8827-1

Timeline

  1. 27-07-2026
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 28-07-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions vulnerability in Erlang OTP erts (epmd) allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to permanently terminate the Erlang Port Mapper Daemon (epmd) via connection slot exhaustion. The do_accept function in erts/epmd/src/epmd_srv.c calls epmd_cleanup_exit() when accept(2) returns EMFILE (per-process file descriptor limit reached) or ENFILE (system-wide file descriptor limit reached), rather than treating these as recoverable conditions. An attacker can exhaust epmd's file descriptor slots by holding many TCP connections open while periodically sending a single byte to reset the idle timeout, then causing accept(2) to return EMFILE, which kills the daemon. epmd has no per-source-IP connection cap, making the attack feasible from a single source. On Debian/Ubuntu default packaging the impact is amplified: the systemd unit inherits a low file descriptor soft limit, and repeated daemon deaths trigger systemd's start-rate-limit, permanently failing both epmd.service and epmd.socket and requiring manual operator intervention to recover. This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15.

CVSS metrics

6 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

0.43%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

36%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

0.00 pp

From 0.43% on 18-09-2026

18-09-202618-10-2026
EPSS score
0.43%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Erlang3 products
  • erlang\/otp≥ 17.0, < 27.3.4 | ≥ 28.0, < 28.5.0.4 | ≥ 29.0, < 29.0.4
  • erts≥ 6.0, < 15.2.7.11 | ≥ 16.0, < 16.4.0.4 | ≥ 17.0, < 17.0.4
  • otp≥ 6.0 (No fix recorded) | ≥ 17.0 (No fix recorded) | ≥ 07b8f441ca711f9812fad9e9115bab3c3aa92f79, < 865d203e4a6a8f44179eced9e1428f9259e4a3bb
Debian1 product
  • erlangAll versions (No fix recorded) | < 1:27.3.4.1+dfsg-1+deb13u3 | < 1:29.0.4+dfsg-1
Ubuntu1 product
  • erlang< 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2+esm2 | < 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1+esm3 | < 1:20.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2+esm3 | < 1:22.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu0.5+esm2 | < 1:24.2.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.7 | < 1:25.3.2.8+dfsg-1ubuntu4.7 | < 1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1

3 vendors · 5 products

References

10 links