Upstream information
Description
Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in the Elixir standard library allows an attacker who controls a list passed to inspect/1, List.to_string/1, or List.to_charlist/1 to exhaust a BEAM node's memory.Inspect.List's charlist branch in lib/elixir/lib/inspect.ex classifies a list as a charlist using List.ascii_printable?/2, which examines only the first :printable_limit (4096 by default) elements, and then calls IO.chardata_to_string/1 on the whole term. A list whose printable prefix exceeds that limit but which contains a later element that is not a code point (an atom, an out-of-range integer, or an improper tail) is therefore mis-classified, and the conversion raises ArgumentError. That conversion runs inside List.to_string/1, whose rescue clause builds its message by interpolating inspect(list), which re-enters the same branch and raises again. The nested inspection is an argument to raise, so the recursion is not in tail position and every level is retained: the process stack grows monotonically while each cycle re-walks the list, until the process is killed by max_heap_size or, by default, the node runs out of memory. List.to_charlist/1 has the same rescue shape.
Below the printable limit the inner inspect/1 sees the invalid element within its counter and renders the list in ordinary bracket form, so a single ArgumentError is raised and no recursion occurs.
This issue affects elixir: from 1.15.0-rc.0 before 1.18.5, from 1.19.0-rc.0 before 1.19.6, and from 1.20.0-rc.0 before 1.20.4.
SUSE information
Overall state of this security issue: Pending
This issue is currently rated as having moderate severity.
| CVSS detail | SUSE |
|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.5 |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| Attack Vector | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low |
| Privileges Required | Low |
| User Interaction | None |
| Scope | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality Impact | None |
| Integrity Impact | None |
| Availability Impact | High |
| CVSSv3 Version | 3.1 |
| CVSS detail | CNA (6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db) | SUSE |
|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 5.9 | 5.7 |
| Vector | CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/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:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N |
| Attack Vector | Local | Local |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low |
| Attack Requirements | Present | Present |
| Privileges Required | None | Low |
| 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 | 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 Module for Package Hub 15 SP7 | elixir | Affected |
| Products past their end of life and not receiving proactive updates anymore. | ||
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Package Hub 15 SP6 | elixir | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | elixir | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | elixir | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | elixir | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | elixir | Affected |
SUSE Timeline for this CVE
CVE page created: Mon Aug 31 18:24:21 2026CVE page last modified: Mon Aug 31 19:44:15 2026