Detections
Analytics

Erlang/OTP 26.2 < 27.3.4.15 / 28.0 < 28.5.0.4 / 29.0 < 29.0.4 Policy Tree DoS (CVE-2026-59251)

high Nessus Plugin ID 331346

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Synopsis

The remote host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of Erlang/OTP installed on the remote host is 26.2 prior to 27.3.4.15, 28.0 prior to 28.5.0.4, or 29.0 prior to 29.0.4. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability:

 - 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, the certificate policy tree grows without an upper bound. 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.
 (CVE-2026-59251)

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Upgrade to Erlang/OTP version 27.3.4.15, 28.5.0.4, or 29.0.4 or later.

See Also

https://github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-622p-qfh6-c352

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 331346

File Name: erlang_otp_CVE-2026-59251.nasl

Version: 1.4

Type: Local

Agent: windows, macosx, unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 7/31/2026

Updated: 8/11/2026

Configuration: Enable thorough checks (optional)

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3

Percentile: 23.72

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-59251

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.7

Threat Score: 6.6

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/a:erlang:erlang%2fotp

Required KB Items: installed_sw/Erlang-OTP

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 7/27/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/27/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-59251

IAVA: 2026-A-0785