UBUNTU-CVE-2026-54890 (CVE-2026-54890)

Vulnerability from osv_ubuntu – Published: 2026-07-27 16:17 – Updated: 2026-09-28 20:31 – Source website
VLAI
Details

Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound) vulnerability in erlang otp erlang/otp (erts modules), erlang otp erts (erts modules) allows Forced Integer Overflow, Excessive Allocation. This vulnerability is associated with program files erts/emulator/beam/external.c, emulator/beam/external.c. The BIT_BINARY_EXT tag (77) handler in the External Term Format (ETF) decoder accepts an encoding with both length and trailing-bits fields set to zero. The subsequent computation of the bitstring size underflows an unsigned integer, producing a value of roughly 2^64 that is then passed as a memory allocation size. The allocator aborts the entire node with a message such as "Cannot allocate 2305843009213693951 bytes of memory (of type binary)". The crash is a VM-level abort, not an Erlang-level exception. It cannot be intercepted by supervision trees, by try/catch, or by passing the [safe] option to binary_to_term/2 (which only restricts atom creation and does not perform structural validation of binary encodings). Any application that decodes ETF from untrusted sources via binary_to_term/1,2 or enif_binary_to_term() is exposed. The Erlang distribution protocol also decodes incoming terms through the same code path, but distribution is expected to run on trusted networks per the OTP Secure Coding Guidelines (DSG-011). This issue affects OTP from OTP 27.0 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15, corresponding to erts from 15.0 before 17.0.4, 16.4.0.4 and 15.2.7.11.

Severity
8.2 (High)
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
7.5 (High)
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
N/A (UNKNOWN)
medium
References
To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "ecosystem_specific": {
        "availability": "No subscription required",
        "binaries": [
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-asn1",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-base",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-common-test",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-crypto",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-debugger",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-dialyzer",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-diameter",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-edoc",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-eldap",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-et",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-eunit",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-examples",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-ftp",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-inets",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-jinterface",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-megaco",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-mnesia",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-mode",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-nox",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-observer",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-odbc",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-os-mon",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-parsetools",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-public-key",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-reltool",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-runtime-tools",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-snmp",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-src",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-ssh",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-ssl",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-syntax-tools",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-tftp",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-tools",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-wx",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-x11",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          },
          {
            "binary_name": "erlang-xmerl",
            "binary_version": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
          }
        ]
      },
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Ubuntu:26.04:LTS",
        "name": "erlang",
        "purl": "pkg:deb/ubuntu/erlang@1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1?arch=source\u0026distro=resolute"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.1"
            }
          ],
          "type": "ECOSYSTEM"
        }
      ],
      "versions": [
        "1:27.3.4.1+dfsg-1build1",
        "1:27.3.4.3+dfsg-1",
        "1:27.3.4.4+dfsg-1",
        "1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [],
  "details": "Integer Underflow (Wrap or Wraparound) vulnerability in erlang otp erlang/otp (erts modules), erlang otp erts (erts modules) allows Forced Integer Overflow, Excessive Allocation. This vulnerability is associated with program files erts/emulator/beam/external.c, emulator/beam/external.c. The BIT_BINARY_EXT tag (77) handler in the External Term Format (ETF) decoder accepts an encoding with both length and trailing-bits fields set to zero. The subsequent computation of the bitstring size underflows an unsigned integer, producing a value of roughly 2^64 that is then passed as a memory allocation size. The allocator aborts the entire node with a message such as \"Cannot allocate 2305843009213693951 bytes of memory (of type binary)\". The crash is a VM-level abort, not an Erlang-level exception. It cannot be intercepted by supervision trees, by try/catch, or by passing the [safe] option to binary_to_term/2 (which only restricts atom creation and does not perform structural validation of binary encodings). Any application that decodes ETF from untrusted sources via binary_to_term/1,2 or enif_binary_to_term() is exposed. The Erlang distribution protocol also decodes incoming terms through the same code path, but distribution is expected to run on trusted networks per the OTP Secure Coding Guidelines (DSG-011). This issue affects OTP from OTP 27.0 before OTP\u00a029.0.4, OTP\u00a028.5.0.4 and OTP\u00a027.3.4.15, corresponding to erts from 15.0 before 17.0.4, 16.4.0.4 and 15.2.7.11.",
  "id": "UBUNTU-CVE-2026-54890",
  "modified": "2026-09-28T20:31:10Z",
  "published": "2026-07-27T16:17:00Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-54890"
    },
    {
      "type": "REPORT",
      "url": "https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-54890"
    },
    {
      "type": "ADVISORY",
      "url": "https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8827-1"
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "USN-8827-1"
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.7.0",
  "severity": [
    {
      "score": "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",
      "type": "CVSS_V4"
    },
    {
      "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H",
      "type": "CVSS_V3"
    },
    {
      "score": "medium",
      "type": "Ubuntu"
    }
  ],
  "upstream": [
    "CVE-2026-54890"
  ]
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.



Related by attack behaviour

Vulnerabilities whose description is nearest to this one in the vector space of the CIRCL/vulnerability-attack-technique-biencoder model. This is a similarity search over the bi-encoder space (plain cosine), not a classification, and it has no measured accuracy.