---
id: CVE-2026-75538
title: >-
  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 …
summary: >-
  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 …
severity: high
cvss: 8.2
cvssVector: 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'
cwe:
  - CWE-122
  - CWE-190
vendor: Erlang
product: otp
affected:
  - otp >= 17.0 < 27.3.4.17
  - otp >= 28.0 < 28.5.0.6
  - otp >= 29.0 < 29.0.6
  - erts >= 6.0 < 15.2.7.13
  - erts >= 16.0 < 16.4.0.6
  - erts >= 17.0 < 17.0.6
  - >-
    erlang/otp >= 84adefa331c4159d432d22840663c38f155cd4c1 <
    08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b
published: '2026-09-01'
updated: '2026-09-08'
sourceUpdated: '2026-09-08T02:17:27.870'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-75538'
references:
  - url: 'https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-75538.html'
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/08e8efdba8500d2d6f54c6b1de1492b228017c9b
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: 'https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-8m6r-2pj2-25pm'
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
  - url: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-75538'
    label: 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-09-01T15:58:11.549801Z'
cvssSource: cna
epss: 0.00854
epssPercentile: 0.56534
ingestedAt: '2026-09-08T15:33:26.957Z'
---

## Overview

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.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.