CVE-2016-10253
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions...
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
NVD Score used
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
CVE-2016-10253- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - CVSS 2.0
- 7.5 High
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P - Weakness
- CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
CVE List No score
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
CVE-2016-10253- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2016-1438 No score
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
EUVD-2016-1438- Updated
- 2026-11-03
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-9cqh-gh33-j3r9
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions...
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
GHSA-9cqh-gh33-j3r9- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-119
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSV
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
CVE-2016-10253- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2016-10253
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2016-10253- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
Show 4 moreShow less
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2016-10253
An issue was discovered in Erlang/OTP 18.x. Erlang's generation of compiled regular expressions is vulnerable to a heap overflow. Regular expressions using a malformed extpattern can indirectly specify an offset that is used as an array index. This ordinal permits arbitrary regions within the erts_alloc arena to be both read and written to.
- Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2016-10253- CVSS 3.0
- 9.8 Critical
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2017:3255-1 No score
Security update for erlang
This update for erlang fixes security issues and bugs.
The following vulnerabilities were addressed:
- CVE-2017-1000385: Harden against the Bleichenbacher attacher against RSA
- CVE-2016-10253: Heap overflow through regular expressions (bsc#1030062)
In addition Erlang was updated to version 18.3.4.6, containing a number of upstream bug fixes and improvements.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2017:3255-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVopenSUSE-SU-2017:3257-1 No score
Security update for erlang
This update for erlang fixes security issues and bugs.
The following vulnerabilities were addressed:
- CVE-2017-1000385: Harden against the Bleichenbacher attacher against RSA
- CVE-2016-10253: Heap overflow through regular expressions (bsc#1030062)
In addition Erlang was updated to version 18.3.4.6, containing a number of upstream bug fixes and improvements.
- Record
openSUSE-SU-2017:3257-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVUSN-3571-1 No score
erlang vulnerabilities
It was discovered that the Erlang FTP module incorrectly handled certain CRLF sequences. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to inject arbitrary FTP commands. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. (CVE-2014-1693)
It was discovered that Erlang incorrectly checked CBC padding bytes. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a padding oracle attack and decrypt traffic. This issue only affected Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. (CVE-2015-2774)
It was discovered that Erlang incorrectly handled certain regular expressions. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to cause Erlang to crash, resulting in a denial of service, or execute arbitrary code. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2016-10253)
Hanno Böck, Juraj Somorovsky and Craig Young discovered that the Erlang otp TLS server incorrectly handled error reporting. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to perform a variation of the Bleichenbacher attack and decrypt traffic or sign messages. (CVE-2017-1000385)
- Record
USN-3571-1- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
| Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|
erlangDebian:12 |
before 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 |
erlangDebian:13 |
before 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 |
erlangDebian:14 |
before 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 | 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2 |
erlangUbuntu:16.04:LTS |
before 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1, plus listed versions 1:18.0-dfsg-1ubuntu11:18.0-dfsg-1ubuntu21:18.2-dfsg-2ubuntu11:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu11:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu21:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3 |
1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1 |
erlangUbuntu:14.04:LTS From an advisory covering 4 CVEs |
before 1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2, plus listed versions 1:16.b.1-dfsg-4ubuntu11:16.b.2-dfsg-1ubuntu11:16.b.2-dfsg-2ubuntu11:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu11:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu21:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.1 |
1:16.b.3-dfsg-1ubuntu2.2 |
erlangUbuntu:16.04:LTS From an advisory covering 4 CVEs |
before 1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1, plus listed versions 1:18.0-dfsg-1ubuntu11:18.0-dfsg-1ubuntu21:18.2-dfsg-2ubuntu11:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu11:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu21:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3 |
1:18.3-dfsg-1ubuntu3.1 |
erlangSUSE:Package Hub 12 From an advisory covering 2 CVEs |
before 18.3.4.7-9.1 | 18.3.4.7-9.1 |
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, facts | ||
| aliases | EUVD | |
| first indexed | CVE List, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2016-10253 is a critical vulnerability (CVSS 9.8) in Erlang Erlang\/otp, published March 18, 2017. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 1.48%, the 74th percentile. Fixed in erlang 1:19.2.1+dfsg-2.