Description
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | erlang | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | — |
| Debian 13 | erlang | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | — |
| Debian 12 | erlang | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | erlang | 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1 | USN-3571-1 |
| Ubuntu 14.04 LTS | erlang | 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2 | USN-3571-1 |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| SUSE Package Hub 12 | erlang | 18.3.4.7-9.1 | openSUSE-SU-2017:3257-1, openSUSE-SU-2017:3255-1 |
Advisories 3
- USN-3571-1 erlang vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Apr 22, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2017:3257-1 Security update for erlang SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2017:3255-1 Security update for erlang SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026
References
- USN-3571-1 vendor-advisory
- https://github.com/erlang/otp/pull/1108