CVE-2026-48853
Deserialization of Untrusted Data and Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerabilities in elixir-grpc grpc allow unauthenticated attackers to crash the BEAM node via atom table exhaustion and, when a decoded term flows into a call…
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.57%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
Deserialization of Untrusted Data and Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerabilities in elixir-grpc grpc allow unauthenticated attackers to crash the BEAM node via atom table exhaustion and, when a decoded term flows into a call site that invokes it, achieve remote code execution on the server. 'Elixir.GRPC.Codec.Erlpack':decode/2 (lib/grpc/codec/erlpack.ex) calls :erlang.binary_to_term/1 on the raw gRPC message body without the :safe option, no size bound, and no type guard. Any unauthenticated peer that sends a request with Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack can send a crafted payload that mints arbitrary new atoms (which are never garbage-collected, exhausting the bounded atom table and crashing the VM) or that encodes a fun term which, if applied anywhere downstream, executes attacker-controlled code inside the server process. This issue affects grpc from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.
- CVSS 4.0
- 9.2 CRITICALCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 0.57% probability · 46th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-502, CWE-770
- Source
- 6b3ad84c-e1a6-4bf7-a703-f496b71e49db
References
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-48853.html
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/272a97a5ea1b46af1819f14a831fcf35fc91f992
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-48853
- https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.