Description
Deserialization of Untrusted Data and Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerabilities in elixir-grpc grpc allow unauthenticated attackers to crash the BEAM node via atom table exhaustion and, when a decoded term flows into a call site that invokes it, achieve remote code execution on the server.
'Elixir.GRPC.Codec.Erlpack':decode/2 (lib/grpc/codec/erlpack.ex) calls :erlang.binary_to_term/1 on the raw gRPC message body without the :safe option, no size bound, and no type guard. Any unauthenticated peer that sends a request with Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack can send a crafted payload that mints arbitrary new atoms (which are never garbage-collected, exhausting the bounded atom table and crashing the VM) or that encodes a fun term which, if applied anywhere downstream, executes attacker-controlled code inside the server process.
This issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| elixir-grpc | grpc | 0.4.0 – < 1.0.0 | 1.0.0 |
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.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | grpc | No fix yet | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hex | grpc | >= 0.4.0, < 1.0.0 | 1.0.0 | EEF-CVE-2026-48853 |
References
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h vendor-advisory related
- EEF CNA record for CVE-2026-48853 related
- OSV record EEF-CVE-2026-48853 related
- Introducing commit 25bcc56 in elixir-grpc/grpc related
- Fix commit 272a97a in elixir-grpc/grpc patch