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Fencer Vulns
high 7.5

CVE-2026-42792 json

epmd permanent DoS via EMFILE on accept(2) in erts

published 2026-07-27 3 mo ago modified 2026-10-24 16 d ago also EUVD-2026-49316

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.4%
EPSS 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 38%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • Erlang OTP 15.2.7.11, 16.4.0.4, 17.0.4, 27.3.4.15, 28.5.0.4, 29.0.4
  • erlang Debian 13 1:27.3.4.1+dfsg-1+deb13u3
  • erlang Debian 14 1:29.0.4+dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-42792

  • erlang Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1:24.2.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.7
  • erlang Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 1:25.3.2.8+dfsg-1ubuntu4.7
  • erlang Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1
  • erlang Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2+esm2
  • erlang Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1+esm3
  • erlang Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 1:20.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2+esm3
  • erlang Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS 1:22.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu0.5+esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2026-42792

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • erlang27 hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-et hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-wx hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-ftp hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-ssh hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-ssl hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-asn1 hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
  • erlang27-edoc hummingbird 1 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1

red hat advisories RHSA-2026:47009

  • erlang SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP4 +8 more 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1
  • erlang26 SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS, SLE Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 26.2.1-150300.7.28.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1SUSE-SU-2026:3579-1

  • erlang openSUSE Tumbleweed 28.5.0.4-1.1
  • erlang27 openSUSE Tumbleweed 27.1.3-3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:11559-1openSUSE-SU-2026:11560-1

  • erlang Azure Linux 3.0 26.2.5.21-4

azure linux advisories AZL-94199

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-42792 updated cvss 7.5

erlang-otp: epmd: Erlang OTP epmd: Remote Denial of Service via connection exhaustion

  • Red Hat Hardened Images erlang27 27.3.4.15-0.1.hum1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:47009

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
3 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 38% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 6.3 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CNA 4.0 6.3 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • Erlang OTP

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-755 Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions
  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.