Import Source
https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData/blob/main/osv/AZL-94199.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/AZL-94199
Upstream
Published
2026-07-27T16:17:06Z
Modified
2026-08-30T05:26:50Z
Summary
CVE-2026-42792 affecting package erlang for versions less than 26.2.5.21-4
Details

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 doaccept function in erts/epmd/src/epmdsrv.c calls epmdcleanupexit() 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.

References

Affected packages

Azure Linux:3 / erlang

Package

Name
erlang
Purl
pkg:rpm/azure-linux/erlang

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
26.2.5.21-4

Database specific

source
"https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData/blob/main/osv/AZL-94199.json"