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Medium · 5.1 CVE-2026-55737 EUVD-2026-49321

Heap pointer corruption via signed/unsigned mismatch in LARGE_TUPLE_EXT decoding in erts external term format decoder

Published Jul 27, 2026 · Updated Nov 11, 2026 · Assigned by EEF

Description

Signed to Unsigned Conversion Error and Out-of-bounds Write vulnerability in Erlang OTP erts allows an attacker who can supply a crafted Erlang external term format (ETF) binary to binary_to_term/1 to corrupt the BEAM heap pointer and crash the virtual machine.

When decoding a LARGE_TUPLE_EXT term, the validation pass decoded_size() in erts/emulator/beam/external.c reads the 32-bit arity field as unsigned (get_uint32()), while the decode pass dec_term() reads the same field as a signed 32-bit integer (get_int32()) into an int. An arity wire value of 0x80000000 passes validation as 2147483648 but decodes as -2147483648, so the subsequent hp += n moves the heap allocation pointer backward. Neither pass enforces the runtime tuple-arity limit MAX_ARITYVAL. The result is an out-of-bounds heap write; in practice the VM detects an impossible heap size and aborts, denying service. The required padding is large when uncompressed but the compressed-ETF envelope shrinks it to a small payload on the wire.

This issue affects OTP from OTP 25.0 before OTP 27.3.4.15, OTP 28.5.0.4, and OTP 29.0.4, corresponding to erts from 13.0 before 15.2.7.11, 16.4.0.4, and 17.0.4.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Erlang OTP 25.0, 13.0 —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 erlang 1:29.0.4+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-1ubuntu0.1 USN-8827-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS erlang 1:25.3.2.8+dfsg-1ubuntu4.7 USN-8827-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS erlang 1:24.2.1+dfsg-1ubuntu0.7 USN-8827-1
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS erlang 1:22.2.7+dfsg-1ubuntu0.5+esm2 USN-8827-1
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS erlang 1:20.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu2+esm3 USN-8827-1
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS erlang 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1+esm3 USN-8827-1
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS erlang 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2+esm2 USN-8827-1
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 26.2.5.21-4 —

Advisories 6

References