CVE-2026-68956
SSH daemon allocates unbounded idle session channels, bypassing max_channels
No known exploitation. EPSS puts it in the 50th percentile. Only a workaround so far.
What to do
No fixed build is published yet. The vendor describes a workaround.
What it is
From the CVE record
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.
In plain language
No plain-language summary for this CVE yet.
Exploitation
Where each signal puts this CVE on the scale from published to confirmed exploited.
- CISA KEV
Not in the catalog. CISA has not confirmed exploitation.
- Public exploits
No public exploit or proof of concept found in the sources we track.
- EPSS
0.7% chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the 50th percentile of scored CVEs.
Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST.org. A probability, not a confirmation.
Lifecycle
9 events over 2 days, from the signal feeds we watch.
- Workaround availablerecord updated
- Workaround availableworkaround available, published, weakness classified, att&ck mapped, record updated, record updated
Affected products
Technical detail
Weaknesses
ATT&CK techniques
Mapped from the weaknesses above (CWE to ATT&CK), not observed in attacks.
Sources
References in the record
- github.com/erlang/otp/security/advisories/GHSA-qhcm-px9c-rvfh
- cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-68956.html
- osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-68956
And 5 more references. See all after sign-in
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