Upstream information

CVE-2026-59251 at MITRE

Description

Allocation of resources without limits in Erlang/OTP public_key certificate path validation allows a remote unauthenticated attacker to cause denial of service by sending a crafted X.509 certificate chain during the TLS handshake.

During RFC 5280 policy processing in public_key:pkix_path_validation/3, the certificate policy tree maintained by pubkey_policy_tree grows without an upper bound. When a certificate chain contains M policies per certificate and K certificates, the tree grows on the order of M^K nodes because pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 and pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2 extend the tree per policy per certificate. A modest chain with many policies per certificate is enough to pin BEAM schedulers and exhaust the node's memory, taking down the entire VM. The attacker only needs to be able to present a certificate chain to the victim, which is the normal precondition for a TLS handshake, so exploitation succeeds against any incoming or outgoing TLS connection that validates the peer's chain (the default for SSL/TLS clients and mutual-TLS servers).

This is the same vulnerability class as OpenSSL's X509_verify_cert policy tree DoS.

This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/public_key/src/pubkey_policy_tree.erl and program routines pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 and pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2.

This issue affects OTP from OTP 26.2 before OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 and OTP 27.3.4.15, corresponding to public_key from 1.15 before 1.21.4, 1.20.3.4 and 1.17.1.5.

SUSE information

Overall state of this security issue: Pending

This issue is currently rated as having important severity.

CVSS v3 Scores
CVSS detail SUSE
Base Score 8.6
Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required None
User Interaction None
Scope Changed
Confidentiality Impact None
Integrity Impact None
Availability Impact High
CVSSv3 Version 3.1
CVSS v4 Scores
CVSS detail CNA (6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db) SUSE
Base Score 8.7 8.7
Vector CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L/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:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:L
Attack Vector Network Network
Attack Complexity Low Low
Attack Requirements None None
Privileges Required None None
User Interaction None None
Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact None None
Vulnerable System Integrity Impact None None
Vulnerable System Availability Impact High High
Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None None
Subsequent System Integrity Impact None None
Subsequent System Availability Impact Low Low
CVSSv4 Version 4.0 4.0
SUSE Bugzilla entry: 1272915 [IN_PROGRESS]

No SUSE Security Announcements cross referenced.


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 Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP7 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 erlang Not 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 Not 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 Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP4 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP5 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP6 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 erlang Not affected
Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore.
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 erlang Not affected
SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 erlang26 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Server Applications 15 SP3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 erlang Not affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.1 erlang Not affected
SUSE Manager Server 4.2 erlang Not affected
openSUSE Leap 15.3 erlang Not affected
openSUSE Leap 15.4 erlang Not affected
openSUSE Leap 15.5 erlang Not affected
openSUSE Leap 15.6 erlang Not affected
openSUSE Leap 15.6 erlang26 Affected


SUSE Timeline for this CVE

CVE page created: Wed Jul 29 21:54:01 2026
CVE page last modified: Thu Jul 30 19:49:23 2026