Erlang: >> Erlang/otp >> 17.2.2 Security Vulnerabilities
Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop') vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_sftpd module) allows an authenticated SFTP user to render an SFTP channel permanently unresponsive.
The handle_data/4 function in ssh_sftpd contains a catch-all clause that accepts channel data of any type. When channel data with a non-zero type code (SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EXTENDED_DATA) arrives with an empty pending buffer and a payload at or below the SFTP packet size limit, the clause tail-calls itself with identical arguments, creating an infinite loop.
The SFTP protocol operates exclusively on normal channel data (type 0). Extended data (non-zero type) is meaningless for SFTP and is never sent by conforming clients. However, the SSH protocol permits any channel participant to send extended data on an open channel, so an authenticated SFTP client can trigger the loop by sending SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_EXTENDED_DATA with any data_type_code and any non-empty payload at or below the size limit.
The targeted ssh_sftpd process enters an infinite tail-recursive loop. It never processes another message, its message queue grows without bound, and it can only be stopped by killing the process. BEAM's reduction-based scheduler preemption continues to function, so other processes on the node are not starved, but each stuck channel process consumes its full CPU time share continuously and accumulates unbounded message queue memory. Opening many channels amplifies the CPU and memory impact.
Erlang/OTP SSH configurations using the default max_channels setting (infinity) allow an authenticated user to open unlimited channels per connection, amplifying the attack without requiring multiple TCP connections or authentications.
No file contents, credentials, or write access are obtainable through this issue. The impact is limited to denial of service on targeted SFTP channels, with secondary CPU degradation and memory growth.
This vulnerability is associated with program file lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl and program routine ssh_sftpd:handle_data/4.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 until OTP 29.0.3, 28.5.0.3, and 27.3.4.14 corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 until 6.0.2, 5.5.2.2, and 5.2.11.9.
CVSS Score
5.3
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-07-02
Improper Enforcement of Message Integrity During Transmission in a Communication Channel vulnerability in Erlang/OTP ssl (tls_gen_connection module) allows a network-positioned attacker to inject unauthenticated plaintext that the TLS client application later treats as authenticated server data.
The function tls_gen_connection:handle_protocol_record/3 rejects APPLICATION_DATA records that arrive in pre-handshake states when the TLS endpoint acts as a server, but does not apply the same check when the endpoint acts as a client. A network-positioned attacker can send plaintext APPLICATION_DATA records to the client during the handshake. The records are buffered and, once the handshake completes successfully, delivered to the application as if they were authenticated post-handshake data. The attacker cannot observe the client's response or steer the connection, so the impact is limited to blind injection of unauthenticated bytes. The injection window is wider for TLS versions prior to TLS 1.3 than for TLS 1.3.
This vulnerability is associated with program file lib/ssl/src/tls_gen_connection.erl.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before 29.0.3, 28.5.0.3 and 27.3.4.14 corresponding to ssl from 5.3.4 before 11.7.3, 11.6.0.3 and 11.2.12.10. TLS 1.3 is affected starting with OTP 22.0, when TLS 1.3 support was added.
CVSS Score
6.3
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-07-02
Observable Response Discrepancy vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_sftpd module) allows an authenticated SFTP user to enumerate the existence of files and directories outside the configured root directory.
The SSH_FXP_REALPATH handler in ssh_sftpd calls relate_file_name/3 with Canonicalize=false, unlike every other SFTP operation handler. This allows .. components in the requested path to bypass the is_within_root/2 check without being resolved. The un-canonicalized path then enters resolve_symlinks/2, which walks up the directory tree above the configured root and issues read_link() syscalls on arbitrary filesystem paths.
An authenticated SFTP client can exploit this by sending a REALPATH request with a crafted traversal path. The server response differs depending on whether the target path exists on the host filesystem (SSH_FXP_NAME when the path resolves successfully, SSH_FX_NO_SUCH_FILE when it does not). This creates a path-existence oracle that an attacker can use to enumerate the filesystem structure outside the configured root, including the existence of sensitive files, directories, and mount points.
The vulnerability leaks only the existence of paths. No file contents, credentials, or write access are obtainable through this issue alone. The information gained may assist further attacks when combined with other vulnerabilities.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl and program routine ssh_sftpd:handle_op/4.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 until OTP 29.0.3, 28.5.0.3, and 27.3.4.14 corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 until 6.0.2, 5.5.2.2, and 5.2.11.9.
CVSS Score
2.3
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-07-02
Stack-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Erlang OTP (erl_interface) allows Stack-based Buffer Overflow.
This vulnerability is associated with program file lib/erl_interface/src/misc/ei_printterm.c and program routine ei_s_print_term.
The C function ei_s_print_term uses an internal 2000-character stack buffer to format terms. When called with an encoded Erlang term containing a very large integer (encoded representation exceeding 2000 characters), the buffer overflows. The overflow bytes are restricted to the ASCII values of 0-9 and A-F, which limits exploitation to Denial of Service.
The companion function ei_print_term, which prints directly to a FILE instead of a memory buffer, does not contain this bug.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before 27.3.4.13, 28.5.0.2 and 29.0.2, corresponding to erl_interface from 3.7.16 before 5.5.2.1, 5.7.0.1 and 5.8.1.
CVSS Score
6.9
EPSS Score
0.001
Published
2026-06-10
Stack-based Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Erlang OTP erts (inet_drv) allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to crash the BEAM VM by sending a crafted SCTP ERROR chunk.
The sctp_parse_error_chunk function in erts/emulator/drivers/common/inet_drv.c parses SCTP ERROR chunks and writes cause codes into a fixed-size stack-allocated ErlDrvTermData spec[] array without checking bounds. A remote attacker who has established an SCTP association to a listening port can send a single crafted SCTP ERROR chunk containing enough cause codes to overflow the stack buffer, crashing the VM. The attacker can only write 16-bit values interleaved with a fixed tag, so the overflow does not provide a controlled return address, limiting exploitation to Denial of Service.
A crafted SCTP ERROR chunk may also leak bits and pieces of Erlang VM memory into the received error packet observed by the Erlang process. Such data is already readable by the user running the Erlang VM, so the disclosure scope is limited.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before 27.3.4.13, 28.5.0.2 and 29.0.2, corresponding to erts from 6.0 before 15.2.7.9, 16.4.0.2 and 17.0.2.
CVSS Score
8.8
EPSS Score
0.005
Published
2026-06-10
Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability in Erlang OTP inets (httpc_response module) allows Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data.
The httpc client forwards the Authorization and Proxy-Authorization request headers to redirect targets without checking whether the redirect crosses an origin boundary. httpc_response:redirect/2 constructs the redirected request by updating only the host field of the header record; all other fields (including authorization and proxy_authorization) are copied verbatim. The redirect target host is never compared against the original host.
autoredirect defaults to true, so this affects all httpc callers that do not explicitly disable automatic redirects.
An attacker who controls a server that the victim contacts via httpc can issue a cross-origin 3xx redirect to a server they also control. The Authorization header (including Basic credentials derived from URL userinfo via httpc_request:handle_user_info/2) is forwarded to the redirect target, allowing credential theft. The same applies to the Proxy-Authorization header.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/inets/src/http_client/httpc_response.erl.
This issue affects OTP from 17.0 before 29.0.2, 28.5.0.2 and 27.3.4.13 corresponding to inets from 5.10 before 9.7.1, 9.6.2.2 and 9.3.2.6.
CVSS Score
7.1
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-06-10
Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_sftpd module) allows File Discovery.
The SSH_FXP_READLINK handler in ssh_sftpd sends the raw result of file:read_link/2 to the client without calling chroot_filename/2 to strip the backend root prefix. An authenticated SFTP client can create a symlink inside the chroot pointing to /; ssh_sftpd resolves the target to the absolute backend root and stores it on disk. Reading the symlink back via SSH_FXP_READLINK returns that absolute path, for example /data/sftp, instead of the chrooted value /.
The information disclosed is the absolute filesystem path of the SFTP root directory and of any symlink targets within it. No file contents, credentials, or access to paths outside the root directory are obtainable through this issue alone.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before 29.0.2, 28.5.0.2 and 27.3.4.13 corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 before 6.0.1, 5.5.2.1 and 5.2.11.8.
CVSS Score
2.3
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-06-10
Improper Following of a Certificate's Chain of Trust vulnerability in Erlang OTP public_key (pubkey_cert module) allows a non-CA certificate to be accepted as an intermediate issuer, enabling certificate chain forgery.
In lib/public_key/src/pubkey_cert.erl, pubkey_cert:validate_extensions/7 contains two flaws that together allow a certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension to be used as an intermediate issuer in a chain passed to public_key:pkix_path_validation/3: the cA:false clause recurses into the remaining extensions without rejecting the certificate when it is in issuer position, and the keyUsage check only fires when the extension is present, so a certificate lacking keyUsage entirely bypasses the keyCertSign enforcement.
Any party holding an end-entity certificate with basicConstraints cA:false and no keyUsage extension, issued by any CA in the victim's trust store, can use that certificate's private key to sign forged leaf certificates for arbitrary identities. public_key:pkix_path_validation/3 accepts the resulting chain, and by extension every TLS or mTLS endpoint built on the OTP ssl application that relies on the default verifier is affected, including server identity verification on the client side and client certificate verification on mTLS servers.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 26.2.5.21, 27.3.4.12, 28.5.0.1, and 29.0.1 corresponding to public_key from 0.22 before 1.15.1.7, 1.17.1.3, 1.20.3.1, and 1.21.1.
CVSS Score
7.0
EPSS Score
0.003
Published
2026-05-27
Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_sftpd module) allows an authenticated SFTP user to modify file attributes outside the configured chroot directory.
The SFTP daemon (ssh_sftpd) stores the raw, user-supplied path in file handles instead of the chroot-resolved path. When SSH_FXP_FSETSTAT is issued on such a handle, file attributes (permissions, ownership, timestamps) are modified on the real filesystem path, bypassing the root directory boundary entirely.
Any authenticated SFTP user on a server configured with the root option can modify file attributes of files outside the intended chroot boundary. The prerequisite is that a target file must exist on the real filesystem at the same relative path. Note that this vulnerability only allows modification of file attributes; file contents cannot be read or altered through this attack vector.
If the SSH daemon runs as root, this enables direct privilege escalation: an attacker can set the setuid bit on any binary, change ownership of sensitive files, or make system configuration world-writable.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl and program routines ssh_sftpd:do_open/4 and ssh_sftpd:handle_op/4.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 until OTP 28.4.3, 27.3.4.11, and 26.2.5.20 corresponding to ssh from 3.01 until 5.5.3, 5.2.11.7, and 5.1.4.15.
CVSS Score
5.3
EPSS Score
0.004
Published
2026-04-21
Incorrect Authorization vulnerability in Erlang OTP (inets modules) allows unauthenticated access to CGI scripts protected by directory rules when served via script_alias.
When script_alias maps a URL prefix to a directory outside DocumentRoot, mod_auth evaluates directory-based access controls against the DocumentRoot-relative path while mod_cgi executes the script at the ScriptAlias-resolved path. This path mismatch allows unauthenticated access to CGI scripts that directory rules were meant to protect.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/inets/src/http_server/mod_alias.erl, lib/inets/src/http_server/mod_auth.erl, and lib/inets/src/http_server/mod_cgi.erl.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 until OTP 28.4.2, 27.3.4.10 and 26.2.5.19 corresponding to inets from 5.10 until 9.6.2, 9.3.2.4 and 9.1.0.6.
CVSS Score
8.3
EPSS Score
0.005
Published
2026-04-07
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