CVE-2026-23943
5.3 · MEDIUMOverview
CVE-2026-23943 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting erlang erlang\/otp. It was published on March 13, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3 (MEDIUM).
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
Technical Description
Improper Handling of Highly Compressed Data (Compression Bomb) vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_transport modules) allows Denial of Service via Resource Depletion.
The SSH transport layer advertises legacy zlib compression by default and inflates attacker-controlled payloads pre-authentication without any size limit, enabling reliable memory exhaustion DoS.
Two compression algorithms are affected:
* zlib: Activates immediately after key exchange, enabling unauthenticated attacks
* [email protected]: Activates post-authentication, enabling authenticated attacks
Each SSH packet can decompress ~255 MB from 256 KB of wire data (1029:1 amplification ratio). Multiple packets can rapidly exhaust available memory, causing OOM kills in memory-constrained environments.
This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_transport.erl and program routines ssh_transport:decompress/2, ssh_transport:handle_packet_part/4.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 28.4.1
Remediation
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from erlang. Update erlang\/otp to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| erlang | erlang\/otp | >= 17.0, < 26.2.5.18 | Affected |
| erlang | erlang\/ssh | >= 3.0.1, < 5.1.4.14 | Affected |
References
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CVE-2026-23943?
CVE-2026-23943 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting erlang erlang\/otp. It was published on March 13, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3 (MEDIUM).
How severe is CVE-2026-23943?
This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 5.3, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. No authentication or special privileges are required for exploitation.
How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-23943?
Check the references section for vendor advisories and patches from erlang. Update erlang\/otp to the latest patched version. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.
How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-23943?
CyberStrike's AI-powered security agents can automatically detect CVE-2026-23943 across your infrastructure using autonomous pentesting, DAST scanning, and HackBrowser. The platform continuously monitors for known vulnerabilities and provides actionable remediation guidance prioritized by real-world exploitability.
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