Upstream information
Description
Improper Handling of Exceptional Conditions vulnerability in Erlang OTP erts (epmd) allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to permanently terminate the Erlang Port Mapper Daemon (epmd) via connection slot exhaustion.The do_accept function in erts/epmd/src/epmd_srv.c calls epmd_cleanup_exit() when accept(2) returns EMFILE (per-process file descriptor limit reached) or ENFILE (system-wide file descriptor limit reached), rather than treating these as recoverable conditions. An attacker can exhaust epmd's file descriptor slots by holding many TCP connections open while periodically sending a single byte to reset the idle timeout, then causing accept(2) to return EMFILE, which kills the daemon. epmd has no per-source-IP connection cap, making the attack feasible from a single source.
On Debian/Ubuntu default packaging the impact is amplified: the systemd unit inherits a low file descriptor soft limit, and repeated daemon deaths trigger systemd's start-rate-limit, permanently failing both epmd.service and epmd.socket and requiring manual operator intervention to recover.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15.
SUSE information
Overall state of this security issue: Pending
This issue is currently rated as having moderate severity.
| CVSS detail | SUSE |
|---|---|
| Base Score | 3.7 |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L |
| Attack Vector | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High |
| Privileges Required | None |
| User Interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality Impact | None |
| Integrity Impact | None |
| Availability Impact | Low |
| CVSSv3 Version | 3.1 |
| CVSS detail | CNA (6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db) | SUSE |
|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.3 | 6.3 |
| Vector | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low |
| Attack Requirements | Present | Present |
| Privileges Required | None | None |
| User Interaction | None | None |
| Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact | None | None |
| Vulnerable System Integrity Impact | None | None |
| Vulnerable System Availability Impact | Low | Low |
| Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact | None | None |
| Subsequent System Integrity Impact | None | None |
| Subsequent System Availability Impact | None | None |
| CVSSv4 Version | 4.0 | 4.0 |
Status of this issue by product and package
Please note that this evaluation state might be work in progress, incomplete or outdated. Also information for service packs in the LTSS phase is only included for issues meeting the LTSS criteria. If in doubt, feel free to contact us for clarification. The updates are grouped by state of their lifecycle. SUSE product lifecycles are documented on the lifecycle page.
| Product(s) | Source package | State |
|---|---|---|
| Products under general support and receiving all security fixes. | ||
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | erlang | Affected |
| Products under Long Term Service Pack support and receiving important and critical security fixes. | ||
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP4 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | erlang | Affected |
| Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore. | ||
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | erlang26 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | erlang | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | erlang | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | erlang26 | Affected |
SUSE Timeline for this CVE
CVE page created: Wed Jul 29 21:43:46 2026CVE page last modified: Thu Jul 30 19:44:11 2026