CVE-2026-55951

highpriority · track · 0EPSS 0.007 · 53 %ileDEUS
grimoire priorityP2 · Scheduled
Exploitable?
—
no known exploitation
Likely / severe?
0.69% (53rd) EPSS
CVSS 8.2 · high
Is it mine?
9 products
Check your exposure
Who says so?
2 sources
osv · cert_bund

EPSS · scored 2026-10-27

The Erlang/OTP httpc HTTP client does not enforce a limit on the total size of response headers received from a server. The max_header_size option defaults to nolimit, and httpc_response:parse_headers/6 accumulates every header into a list before the length check runs (which only fires after the terminating CRLF CRLF is received). A malicious or compromised HTTP server can send an arbitrarily large number of headers, or headers with very large values, causing the client process to allocate unbounded memory until the system runs out of memory or the BEAM VM crashes. A proof-of-concept server sending 100,000 headers of roughly 4000 bytes each caused the client VM to allocate over 13 GB of memory in under 30 seconds. Any application using httpc:request/4,5 to connect to untrusted servers is affected. No authentication is required: any server the client connects to (including via a redirect or man-in-the-middle) can trigger the exhaustion. 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 inets from 5.10 before 9.3.2.7, from 9.4 before 9.6.2.3, and from 9.7 before 9.7.2. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to inets before 5.10, is affected is unknown.

01

cvss

Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.

8.2
010

base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 4.6–8.2

v4.08.2highCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/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:Xsecondary
v4.04.6mediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/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:Xsecondary · CVSS-BT (t0sche)
02

ssvc

A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.

Trackcoordinatorcisa_ssvcUS
03

weaknesses

The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.

04

affected products (9)

Products and version ranges known to be affected.

05

advisories (2)

Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.

  • WID-SEC-W-2026-3146Erlang/OTP: Mehrere SchwachstellenDeutsch2026-09-01csaf · cert_bundDE

    Ein Angreifer kann mehrere Schwachstellen in Erlang/OTP ausnutzen, um Sicherheitsvorkehrungen zu umgehen, Daten zu manipulieren oder offenzulegen oder einen Denial-of-Service-Zustand auszulösen.

  • EEF-CVE-2026-55951httpc memory exhaustion via unbounded response header accumulation2026-09-01vendor · osvUS

    ## Summary The Erlang/OTP `httpc` HTTP client does not enforce a limit on the total size of response headers received from a server. The `max_header_size` option defaults to `nolimit`, and `httpc_response:parse_headers/6` accumulates every header into a list before the length check runs (which only fires after the terminating CRLF CRLF is received). A malicious or compromised HTTP server can send an arbitrarily large number of headers, or headers with very large values, causing the client process to allocate unbounded memory until the system runs out of memory or the BEAM VM crashes. A proof-of-concept server sending 100,000 headers of roughly 4000 bytes each caused the client VM to allocate over 13 GB of memory in under 30 seconds. Any application using `httpc:request/4,5` to connect to untrusted servers is affected. No authentication is required: any server the client connects to (including via a redirect or man-in-the-middle) can trigger the exhaustion. 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 inets from 5.10 before 9.3.2.7, from 9.4 before 9.6.2.3, and from 9.7 before 9.7.2. Whether OTP before OTP 17.0, corresponding to inets before 5.10, is affected is unknown. ## Workarounds * Restrict `httpc` to trusted servers only, and avoid using it to fetch resources from arbitrary or user-supplied URLs. * Apply operating-system memory limits (cgroups,`ulimit`) to contain the blast radius of a runaway client process. * Use an alternative HTTP client library that enforces a response header size limit.

06

also known as (1)

Other names and identifiers for this entity.

07

sources

Which sources assert this record, and when.

published 2026-09-01modified 2026-09-08
08

references (6) nvd

External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.

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