CVE-2026-59251
highpriority · track · 30EPSS 0.003 · 25 %ileDEEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
Allocation of resources without limits in Erlang/OTP public_key certificate path validation allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause denial of service by sending a crafted X.509 certificate chain during the TLS handshake. During RFC 5280 policy processing in public_key:pkix_path_validation/3, the certificate policy tree maintained by pubkey_policy_tree grows without an upper bound. When a certificate chain contains M policies per certificate and K certificates, the tree grows on the order of M^K nodes because pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 and pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2 extend the tree per policy per certificate. A modest chain with many policies per certificate is enough to pin BEAM schedulers and exhaust the node's memory, taking down the entire VM. The attacker only needs to be able to present a certificate chain to the victim, which is the normal precondition for a TLS handshake, so exploitation succeeds against any incoming or outgoing TLS connection that validates the peer's chain (the default for SSL/TLS clients and mutual-TLS servers). This is the same vulnerability class as OpenSSL's X509_verify_cert policy tree DoS. This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/public_key/src/pubkey_policy_tree.erl and program routines pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 and pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2. This issue affects OTP from OTP 26.2 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15, corresponding to public_key from 1.15 before 1.21.4, 1.20.3.4 and 1.17.1.5.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode⚠ sources disagree · medium–high · 6.6–8.7
ssvc
A stakeholder decision — act, attend, or track — from exploitation and impact.
weaknesses
The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.
affected products (18)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (2)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- WID-SEC-W-2026-2533Erlang/OTP: Mehrere SchwachstellenDeutsch2026-07-27csaf · cert_bundDE
Ein entfernter, anonymer Angreifer kann mehrere Schwachstellen in Erlang/OTP ausnutzen, um einen Denial of Service Angriff durchzuführen, beliebigen Code auszuführen, Sicherheitsmaßnahmen zu umgehen sowie Daten zu manipulieren oder offenzulegen.
- EEF-CVE-2026-59251Denial of service via exponential certificate policy tree growth in path validation2026-07-27vendor · osvUS
## Summary Allocation of resources without limits in Erlang/OTP public\_key certificate path validation allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause denial of service by sending a crafted X.509 certificate chain during the TLS handshake. During RFC 5280 policy processing in public\_key:pkix\_path\_validation/3, the certificate policy tree maintained by pubkey\_policy\_tree grows without an upper bound. When a certificate chain contains M policies per certificate and K certificates, the tree grows on the order of M^K nodes because pubkey\_policy\_tree:add\_leaves/2 and pubkey\_policy\_tree:add\_leaf\_siblings/2 extend the tree per policy per certificate. A modest chain with many policies per certificate is enough to pin BEAM schedulers and exhaust the node's memory, taking down the entire VM. The attacker only needs to be able to present a certificate chain to the victim, which is the normal precondition for a TLS handshake, so exploitation succeeds against any incoming or outgoing TLS connection that validates the peer's chain (the default for SSL/TLS clients and mutual-TLS servers). This is the same vulnerability class as OpenSSL's X509\_verify\_cert policy tree DoS. This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/public\_key/src/pubkey\_policy\_tree.erl and program routines pubkey\_policy\_tree:add\_leaves/2 and pubkey\_policy\_tree:add\_leaf\_siblings/2. This issue affects OTP from OTP 26.2 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15, corresponding to public\_key from 1.15 before 1.21.4, 1.20.3.4 and 1.17.1.5.
also known as (3)
Other names and identifiers for this entity.
sources
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references (18)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-59251.htmlcnnvd
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/f04c6bba38de1cf1b1836a7d9a9fbe239bd939e8cnnvd
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/f8580fc117098c08165f46c26fd0750c5cfb2a90cnnvd
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-622p-qfh6-c352cnnvd
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-59251cnnvd
- https://www.erlang.org/doc/system/versions.html#order-of-versionscnnvd
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-59251.htmlenisa_euvd
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/commit/f04c6bba38de1cf1b1836a7d9a9fbe239bd939e8enisa_euvd
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