Skip to main content
Press slash or control plus K to focus the search. Use the arrow keys to navigate results and press enter to open a threat.
Reconnecting to live updates…

CVE-2026-75758: CWE-674 Uncontrolled Recursion in elixir-lang elixir

0
Medium
VulnerabilityCVE-2026-75758cvecve-2026-75758cwe-674
Published: 08/28/2026 (08/28/2026, 11:28:53 UTC)
Source: CVE Database V5
Vendor/Project: elixir-lang
Product: elixir

Description

Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in the Elixir standard library allows an attacker who controls a list passed to inspect/1, List.to_string/1, or List.to_charlist/1 to exhaust a BEAM node's memory. Inspect.List's charlist branch in lib/elixir/lib/inspect.ex classifies a list as a charlist using List.ascii_printable?/2, which examines only the first :printable_limit (4096 by default) elements, and then calls IO.chardata_to_string/1 on the whole term. A list whose printable prefix exceeds that limit but which contains a later element that is not a code point (an atom, an out-of-range integer, or an improper tail) is therefore mis-classified, and the conversion raises ArgumentError. That conversion runs inside List.to_string/1, whose rescue clause builds its message by interpolating inspect(list), which re-enters the same branch and raises again. The nested inspection is an argument to raise, so the recursion is not in tail position and every level is retained: the process stack grows monotonically while each cycle re-walks the list, until the process is killed by max_heap_size or, by default, the node runs out of memory. List.to_charlist/1 has the same rescue shape. Below the printable limit the inner inspect/1 sees the invalid element within its counter and renders the list in ordinary bracket form, so a single ArgumentError is raised and no recursion occurs. This issue affects elixir: from 1.15.0-rc.0 before 1.18.5, from 1.19.0-rc.0 before 1.19.6, and from 1.20.0-rc.0 before 1.20.4.

CVSS v4.0

Score 5.9medium

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
Present
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Vuln. Confidentiality
None
Vuln. Integrity
None
Vuln. Availability
High
Subsq. Confidentiality
None
Subsq. Integrity
None
Subsq. Availability
None
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Affected software

GitHub Actionsmore threats →cve
elixir
pkg:github/elixir
CPE configurations
cpe:2.3:a:elixir-lang:elixir:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Run on your own infrastructure? Check whether these packages are installed with threat-finder — our free open-source scanner.

Technical Details

Data Version
5.2
Assigner Short Name
EEF
Date Reserved
2026-08-19T09:00:01.955Z
Cvss Version
4.0
State
PUBLISHED
Remediation Level
null

Threat ID: 6a91ab5dacd9273b490abfdd

Added to database: 08/28/2026, 15:38:05 UTC

Last updated: 08/29/2026, 00:01:56 UTC

Views: 7

Community Reviews

0 reviews

Crowdsource mitigation strategies, share intel context, and vote on the most helpful responses. Sign in to add your voice and help keep defenders ahead.

Sort by
Loading community insights…

Want to contribute mitigation steps or threat intel context? Sign in or create an account to join the community discussion.

Actions

Please log in to the Console to use AI analysis features.

Need more coverage?

Upgrade to Pro Console for AI refresh and higher limits.

For incident response and remediation, OffSeq services can help resolve threats faster.

Latest Threats

Breach by OffSeqOFFSEQFRIENDS — 25% OFF

Check if your credentials are on the dark web

Instant breach scanning across billions of leaked records. Free tier available.

Scan now
OffSeq TrainingCredly Certified

Lead Pen Test Professional

Technical5-day eLearningPECB Accredited
View courses