dbcve.org
Erlang\/otpApplication · Erlang

CVE-2026-55737

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Developing Published 2026-07-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 15.2.7.11 / 16.4.0.4 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click 3 weeks old

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
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 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15, corresponding to erts from 13.0 before 17.0.4, 16.4.0.4 and 15.2.7.11.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · low confidence
Developing — this CVE was published recently and its authoritative NVD entry is still being established, so we're holding a technical summary until the source data settles rather than publish something unreliable. Re-checking after 2026-08-10.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Erlang\/otpApplication
Affected:>= 25.0, < 27.3.4.15>= 28.0, < 28.5.0.4>= 29.0, < 29.0.4
ErtsApplication
Affected:>= 13.0, < 15.2.7.11>= 16.0, < 16.4.0.4>= 17.0, < 17.0.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 15.2.7.11 / 16.4.0.4 / 17.0.4 or later
Fixed in 15.2.7.1116.4.0.417.0.4
Recommended fix High confidence

OTP 29.0.4 or later (or OTP 28.5.0.4+ / OTP 27.3.4.15+ depending on your base version)

  1. 1. Identify the current Erlang/OTP version in use by running 'erl -version' or 'otp_version' in an Erlang shell.
  2. 2. If running OTP 25.x, upgrade to OTP 29.0.4 or later (e.g., OTP 29.1.x, 29.2.x).
  3. 3. If running OTP 28.x, upgrade to at least OTP 28.5.0.4 or later (e.g., OTP 28.6.x).
  4. 4. If running OTP 27.x, upgrade to at least OTP 27.3.4.15 or later (e.g., OTP 27.4.x).
  5. 5. After upgrading, verify the new version is active: run 'erl -version' to confirm the installed OTP version.
  6. 6. Test that applications using binary_to_term/1 with untrusted external term data function correctly with the patched version.
Caveat Major OTP upgrades may introduce breaking changes in language features or standard library behavior; review the release notes for your target version for compatibility notes.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-55737 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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