{"cve":"CVE-2026-42792","nvd":{"published":"2026-07-27T16:17:06.257","modified":"2026-10-24T13:10:00.147","status":"Analyzed","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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nOn 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.\n\nThis issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15.","cvss_v4":{"vector":"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","score":6.3},"cvss_v3":{"version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","score":7.5},"cwes":["CWE-755","CWE-770"],"references":["https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-42792.html","https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/865d203e4a6a8f44179eced9e1428f9259e4a3bb","https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-h6f3-hx58-xhj6","https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-42792","https://www.erlang.org/doc/system/versions.html#order-of-versions"],"products":["erlang:erlang\\/otp","erlang:erts"],"source":"nvd","synced_at":"2026-10-24T16:53:27.712498749+00:00"},"epss":{"cve":"CVE-2026-42792","score":0.00435,"percentile":0.37544,"date":"2026-10-25"},"kev":null,"osv":[],"attribution":["This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.","EPSS scores: FIRST Exploit Prediction Scoring System, https://www.first.org/epss","Known exploited vulnerabilities: CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog","Package advisories: OSV (https://osv.dev), from the GitHub Advisory Database, PyPA, Go, RustSec and other ecosystem databases, under CC-BY 4.0 or CC0","CVE records: the CVE Program's CVE List (https://www.cve.org), under its terms of use (https://www.cve.org/Legal/TermsOfUse). CVE is a registered trademark of The MITRE Corporation; this product is not affiliated with the CVE Program."]}