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CVE-2026-59251

Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.

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.

Severity
HIGH
CVSS score
8.7 (v4.0)
Vulnerability status
Analyzed
Source identifier
6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
Published
2026-07-27 16:18:03.517000
Last modified
2026-10-24 13:10:00.147000
View original CVE JSON 
{
  "id": "CVE-2026-59251",
  "sourceIdentifier": "6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db",
  "published": "2026-07-27T16:18:03.517",
  "lastModified": "2026-10-24T13:10:00.147",
  "vulnStatus": "Analyzed",
  "cveTags": [],
  "descriptions": [
    {
      "lang": "en",
      "value": "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.\n\nDuring 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).\n\nThis is the same vulnerability class as OpenSSL's X509_verify_cert policy tree DoS.\n\nThis 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.\n\nThis 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."
    },
    {
      "lang": "es",
      "value": "Asignación de recursos sin límites en la validación de ruta de certificado public_key de Erlang/OTP permite a un atacante remoto no autenticado causar denegación de servicio enviando una cadena de certificados X.509 manipulada durante el handshake TLS.\n\nDurante el procesamiento de políticas RFC 5280 en public_key:pkix_path_validation/3, el árbol de políticas de certificado mantenido por pubkey_policy_tree crece sin un límite superior. Cuando una cadena de certificados contiene M políticas por certificado y K certificados, el árbol crece en el orden de M^K nodos porque pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 y pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2 extienden el árbol por política por certificado. Una cadena modesta con muchas políticas por certificado es suficiente para fijar los planificadores BEAM y agotar la memoria del nodo, derribando toda la VM. El atacante solo necesita poder presentar una cadena de certificados a la víctima, lo cual es la condición previa normal para un handshake TLS, por lo que la explotación tiene éxito contra cualquier conexión TLS entrante o saliente que valida la cadena del par (el valor predeterminado para clientes SSL/TLS y servidores mutual-TLS).\n\nEsta es la misma clase de vulnerabilidad que el DoS del árbol de políticas X509_verify_cert de OpenSSL.\n\nEsta vulnerabilidad está asociada con los archivos de programa lib/public_key/src/pubkey_policy_tree.erl y las rutinas de programa pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaves/2 y pubkey_policy_tree:add_leaf_siblings/2.\n\nEste problema afecta a OTP desde OTP 26.2 antes de OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4 y OTP 27.3.4.15, correspondiente a public_key desde 1.15 antes de 1.21.4, 1.20.3.4 y 1.17.1.5."
    }
  ],
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          "programFiles": [
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          "programRoutines": [
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            },
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          ],
          "repo": "https://github.com/erlang/otp",
          "packageURL": "pkg:otp/public_key?repository_url=https:%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ferlang%2Fotp&vcs_url=git%20https:%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Ferlang%2Fotp.git",
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          "programRoutines": [
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          ],
          "repo": "https://github.com/erlang/otp",
          "packageURL": "pkg:github/erlang/otp",
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              "versionType": "git",
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                  "at": "f04c6bba38de1cf1b1836a7d9a9fbe239bd939e8",
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        }
      ]
    }
  ],
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          "subConfidentialityImpact": "NONE",
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          "exploitMaturity": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "confidentialityRequirement": "NOT_DEFINED",
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          "modifiedSubAvailabilityImpact": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Safety": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Automatable": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "Recovery": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "valueDensity": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "vulnerabilityResponseEffort": "NOT_DEFINED",
          "providerUrgency": "NOT_DEFINED"
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    "cvssMetricV31": [
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