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🛡️ CVE-2026-42792 — erts

🟠 CVSS 7.5 — High ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-755 NVD
7.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

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.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached over the network, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

CVSS metrics in full

The score comes from this vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network — reachable from anywhere that can route to the service.
  • Attack complexity: Low — the attack works reliably, with no preparation.
  • Privileges required: None — an unauthenticated stranger can try it.
  • User interaction: None — nobody has to be tricked into anything.
  • Scope: Unchanged — the damage stays inside the vulnerable component.
  • Confidentiality impact: None.
  • Integrity impact: None.
  • Availability impact: High — total loss, or loss the attacker controls.

Weakness class

CVE-2026-42792 is classified as CWE-755: Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions. The product does not handle or incorrectly handles an exceptional condition.

Affected software

CVE-2026-42792 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • erlang\/otp (from 29.0 up to 29.0.4)
  • erts (from 17.0 up to 17.0.4)

Timeline and source

Published on 27 July 2026 and last revised on 10 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

cna.erlef.org
github.com
github.com
osv.dev
www.erlang.org

Other advisories for this package

erlang\/otp has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

Same weakness in other software

These advisories are the same class of weakness (CWE-755: Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions) in other software:

Details

Severity HIGH
CVSS Score 7.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE CWE-755
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2026-07-27
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-10

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
erlang\/otp 29.0 29.0.4
erts 17.0 17.0.4

Site Security Check

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CVE-2026-42792 is rated CVSS 7.5 High. BotEraser scans your installation against known CVE records and tells you whether this vulnerability applies to the versions you actually run.

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ⓘ Data Notice: The information presented above has been compiled from publicly available internet sources. Boteraser aggregates this data solely for informational purposes and does not independently classify, evaluate, or endorse any findings about the vulnerabilities listed. The accuracy and completeness of this information is the sole responsibility of the original publishers. Boteraser and its operators accept no liability for any decisions made based on this data.

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