Skip to content
OpenAdvisories
Medium · 6.3 CVE-2026-54887 EUVD-2026-41411

DTLS server cookie bypass during startup window due to empty initial cookie secret

Published Jul 2, 2026 · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Assigned by EEF

Description

Use of Default Cryptographic Key vulnerability in Erlang/OTP ssl (DTLS server) allows predictable DTLS cookie computation during the startup window, enabling source address verification bypass.

On DTLS server startup, dtls_server_connection:initial_hello/3 initializes previous_cookie_secret to the empty binary (<<>>) instead of a random value. Because HMAC with an empty key is deterministic, anyone who observes the plaintext ClientHello can compute dtls_handshake:cookie(<<>>, IP, Port, Hello) and forge a valid DTLS cookie before the first rotation of the cookie secret. The DTLS cookie (RFC 6347 §4.2.1) is a denial-of-service mitigation that prevents spoofed source IPs from forcing the server to allocate state and perform expensive cryptographic operations; it is not an authentication mechanism. During the window from server startup until the first secret rotation (0 to 15 seconds), an attacker who can observe the plaintext ClientHello can bypass the source address verification, enabling DTLS handshake amplification with spoofed source addresses.

This vulnerability is associated with program file lib/ssl/src/dtls_server_connection.erl and program routine dtls_server_connection:initial_hello/3.

This issue affects OTP from OTP 20.0 before OTP 27.3.4.14, OTP 28.5.0.3, and OTP 29.0.3, corresponding to ssl from 8.2 before 11.2.12.10, 11.6.0.3, and 11.7.3.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Erlang OTP 20.0, 8.2 —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 erlang 1:29.0.3+dfsg-1 —
Debian 13 erlang 1:27.3.4.1+dfsg-1+deb13u3 —
Debian 12 erlang No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS erlang 1:27.3.4.6+dfsg-1ubuntu0.2 USN-8901-1
Ubuntu 25.10 erlang No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS erlang 1:25.3.2.8+dfsg-1ubuntu4.8 USN-8901-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS erlang 1:24.2.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.8 USN-8901-1
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS erlang 1:22.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu0.5+esm3 USN-8901-1
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS erlang 1:20.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2+esm4 USN-8901-1
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS erlang 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1+esm4 USN-8901-1
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS erlang 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2+esm3 USN-8901-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLES 15 SP7 erlang26 26.2.1-150300.7.28.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3579-1
SLES 15 SP6 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLES 15 SP6 erlang26 26.2.1-150300.7.28.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3579-1
SLES 15 SP5 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLES 15 SP4 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES for SAP 15 SP6 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP6 erlang26 26.2.1-150300.7.28.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3579-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP5 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLES for SAP 15 SP4 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLE HPC 15 SP5 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
SLE HPC 15 SP4 erlang 23.3.4.19-150300.3.39.1 SUSE-SU-2026:3645-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed erlang 28.5.0.4-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11559-1
openSUSE Tumbleweed erlang27 27.1.3-3.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:11560-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 erlang 26.2.5.21-6 —

Advisories 6

References