CVE-2026-68956

Source
https://cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-68956
Import Source
https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-68956.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/CVE-2026-68956
Aliases
Downstream
Published
2026-09-22T08:49:21Z
Modified
2026-09-24T03:45:56Z
Severity
  • 7.1 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
SSH daemon allocates unbounded idle session channels, bypassing max_channels
Details

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in Erlang/OTP ssh allows an authenticated remote attacker to exhaust node memory by repeatedly opening session channels that are never assigned a handler.

The "session" clause of ssh_connection:handle_msg/4 checks only minimal_remote_max_packet_size before calling setup_session/5, which unconditionally builds a #channel{} record and stores it in the ETS channel cache. The max_channels daemon option is consulted only by ssh_channel_sup:max_num_channels_not_exceeded/2, which counts supervisor children, so a channel that never gets a shell, exec, or subsystem handler is invisible to the limit and setting the option to a finite value does not mitigate the attack. RFC 4254 section 5.1 permits many session channels per connection, and each record costs only a few hundred bytes, so a single authenticated connection can accumulate channels until the node runs out of memory and the emulator terminates, affecting every application on it. No file contents, credentials, or write access are obtainable.

This issue affects OTP from OTP 18.1.2 before OTP 27.3.4.18, OTP 28.5.0.7, and OTP 29.1.1, corresponding to ssh from 4.1.1 before 5.2.11.13, 5.5.2.6, and 6.0.6. Whether OTP before OTP 18.1.2, corresponding to ssh before 4.1.1, is affected is unknown.

Database specific
{
    "cna_assigner":  "EEF",
    "cwe_ids":  [
        "CWE-770"
    ],
    "osv_generated_from":  "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/68xxx/CVE-2026-68956.json",
    "unresolved_ranges":  [
        {
            "extracted_events":  [
                {
                    "introduced":  "18.1.2"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "*"
                },
                {
                    "introduced":  "4.1.1"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "*"
                },
                {
                    "introduced":  "84df3d4d0278e21a36a453bfee94799f0df67c2a"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "*"
                }
            ],
            "source":  "AFFECTED_FIELD"
        },
        {
            "extracted_events":  [
                {
                    "fixed":  "27.3.4.18"
                },
                {
                    "introduced":  "28.0"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "28.5.0.7"
                },
                {
                    "introduced":  "29.0"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "29.1.1"
                }
            ],
            "source":  "CPE_FIELD"
        },
        {
            "extracted_events":  [
                {
                    "introduced":  "18.1.2"
                },
                {
                    "introduced":  "4.1.1"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "5.2.11.13"
                },
                {
                    "fixed":  "4.1.1"
                }
            ],
            "source":  "DESCRIPTION"
        }
    ]
}
References

Affected packages

Git / github.com/erlang/otp

Affected ranges

Type
GIT
Repo
https://github.com/erlang/otp
Events
Database specific
Show details
{
    "source":  "REFERENCES"
}

Affected versions

OTP-17.*
OTP-17.0
OTP-18.*
OTP-18.0
OTP-18.0-rc1
OTP-18.1
OTP-18.1.1
OTP-19.*
OTP-19.0
OTP-19.0-rc1
OTP-19.0-rc2
OTP-20.*
OTP-20.0
OTP-20.0-rc1
OTP-20.0-rc2
OTP-21.*
OTP-21.0
OTP-21.0-rc1
OTP-21.0-rc2
OTP-22.*
OTP-22.0
OTP-22.0-rc1
OTP-22.0-rc2
OTP-22.0-rc3
OTP-23.*
OTP-23.0
OTP-23.0-rc1
OTP-23.0-rc2
OTP-23.0-rc3
OTP-24.*
OTP-24.0
OTP-24.0-rc1
OTP-24.0-rc2
OTP-24.0-rc3
OTP-25.*
OTP-25.0
OTP-25.0-rc1
OTP-25.0-rc2
OTP-25.0-rc3
OTP-26.*
OTP-26.0
OTP-26.0-rc1
OTP-26.0-rc2
OTP-26.0-rc3
OTP-27.*
OTP-27.0
OTP-27.0-rc1
OTP-27.0-rc2
OTP-27.0-rc3
OTP-27.1
OTP-27.2
OTP-27.3
OTP-27.3.1
OTP-27.3.2
OTP-27.3.3
OTP-27.3.4
OTP-27.3.4.1
OTP-27.3.4.10
OTP-27.3.4.11
OTP-27.3.4.12
OTP-27.3.4.13
OTP-27.3.4.14
OTP-27.3.4.15
OTP-27.3.4.16
OTP-27.3.4.2
OTP-27.3.4.3
OTP-27.3.4.4
OTP-27.3.4.5
OTP-27.3.4.6
OTP-27.3.4.7
OTP-27.3.4.8
OTP-27.3.4.9
OTP-28.*
OTP-28.0
OTP-28.0-rc1
OTP-28.0-rc2
OTP-28.0-rc3
OTP-28.0-rc4
OTP-28.1
OTP-28.4
OTP-28.5
OTP-28.5.0.1
OTP-28.5.0.2
OTP-28.5.0.3
OTP-28.5.0.4
OTP-28.5.0.5
OTP-29.*
OTP-29.0
OTP-29.0-rc1
OTP-29.0-rc2
OTP-29.0-rc3
OTP-29.0.1
OTP-29.0.2
OTP-29.0.3
OTP-29.0.4
OTP-29.0.5
OTP_17.*
OTP_17.0-rc1
OTP_17.0-rc2
Other
OTP_R13B03
OTP_R13B04
OTP_R14A
OTP_R14B
OTP_R14B01
OTP_R14B02
OTP_R14B03
OTP_R15A
OTP_R15B
OTP_R16A_RELEASE_CANDIDATE
OTP_R16B
patch-base-27
patch-base-28

Database specific

source
"https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-68956.json"