{"id":"CVE-2026-48853","aliases":["EEF-CVE-2026-48853","EUVD-2026-37015","GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h","UBUNTU-CVE-2026-48853"],"status":"published","title":"Remote code execution and denial of service via unsafe Erlang term deserialization in elixir-grpc/grpc","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.\n\n'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.","severity":{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-11","score":0.00784,"percentile":0.56507,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":true},"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"published":"2026-06-15T21:56:15Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:31:08Z","fixes":[{"ecosystem":"Hex","package":"grpc","fixed_in":["1.0.0"],"sources":["ghsa","osv"]}],"affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Hex","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0.4.0"},{"fixed":"1.0.0"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Hex","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0.4.0"},{"fixed":"1.0.0"}]}],"versions":["0.10.0","0.10.1","0.10.2","0.11.0","0.11.1","0.11.2","0.11.3","0.11.4","0.11.5","0.5.0","0.5.0-beta","0.5.0-beta.1","0.6.0","0.7.0","0.8.0","0.8.1","0.9.0","1.0.0-rc.1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Hex","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0.4.0"},{"fixed":"1.0.0"}]}],"versions":["0.10.0","0.10.1","0.10.2","0.11.0","0.11.1","0.11.2","0.11.3","0.11.4","0.11.5","0.5.0","0.5.0-beta","0.5.0-beta.1","0.6.0","0.7.0","0.8.0","0.8.1","0.9.0","1.0.0-rc.1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:16.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["0.10.2-1","0.11.1-1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:18.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.3.2-1","1.3.2-1ubuntu1","1.3.2-1.1~build1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:20.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.16.1-1","1.16.1-1ubuntu1","1.16.1-1ubuntu3","1.16.1-1ubuntu4","1.16.1-1ubuntu5"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:22.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.30.2-3","1.30.2-3build1","1.30.2-3build3","1.30.2-3build5","1.30.2-3build6"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:24.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.51.1-3build3","1.51.1-3build4","1.51.1-4","1.51.1-4build1","1.51.1-4build2","1.51.1-4.1build3","1.51.1-4.1build4","1.51.1-4.1build5"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:25.10","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.51.1-6","1.51.1-6build1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:26.10","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.51.1-8ubuntu1","1.51.1-9","1.51.1-9ubuntu3","1.51.1-10ubuntu1"]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Ubuntu:26.04:LTS","package":"grpc","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}],"versions":["1.51.1-6build1","1.51.1-7","1.51.1-7ubuntu2","1.51.1-7ubuntu3","1.51.1-8ubuntu1"]}],"products":[{"vendor":"elixir-grpc","product":"grpc"},{"vendor":"google","product":"grpc"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/security/advisories/GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h","tags":["vendor-advisory","related","exploit","advisory","web"]},{"url":"https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-48853.html","tags":["related","web"]},{"url":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-48853","tags":["related","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/25bcc569fe2cc4478531a6c546c923205fc751c9","tags":["related","fix","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/272a97a5ea1b46af1819f14a831fcf35fc91f992","tags":["patch","fix","web"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48853","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/pull/540","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/releases/tag/v1.0.0","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h"},{"url":"https://github.com","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://repo.hex.pm","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/48xxx/CVE-2026-48853.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc","tags":["package"]},{"url":"https://hex.pm/packages/grpc","tags":["package"]},{"url":"https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-48853","tags":["report"]},{"url":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48853","tags":["report"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2026-48853","title":"Remote code execution and denial of service via unsafe Erlang term deserialization in elixir-grpc/grpc","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.\n\n'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T21:56:15.262Z","modified":"2026-09-24T21:08:47.457Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T13:50:49.872037Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2026-37015","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.\n\n'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T21:56:15Z","modified":"2026-09-24T21:08:47Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T17:27:56.296478Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h","title":"gRPC Erlang package vulnerable to Remote Code Execution with attacker-controlled gRPC payloads","description":"### Summary\n\n`GRPC.Codec.Erlpack.decode/2` calls `:erlang.binary_to_term/1` directly on the raw gRPC message body without the `:safe` option. Any unauthenticated peer that can reach a gRPC endpoint with `Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack` can crash the entire BEAM node via atom table exhaustion or, if a decoded fun term flows into a call site that invokes it, achieve remote code execution inside the server process.\n\n### Details\n\n**Root cause** — `lib/grpc/codec/erlpack.ex` implements `decode/2` as a bare `:erlang.binary_to_term(binary)` call with no `:safe` flag, no size limit, and no type validation. This has two independent exploitation paths:\n\n**1. DoS via atom exhaustion** — BEAM atoms are never garbage-collected and the global atom table is bounded (~1,048,576 entries). A crafted payload encoding large numbers of fresh atoms saturates the table and crashes the entire VM, taking down all applications on the node.\n\n**2. RCE via fun materialization** — Without `:safe`, `binary_to_term/1` reconstructs fun and external-fun terms from wire data. If the decoded value reaches any call site that applies it (e.g. `Enum.map`, `Task.async`, direct invocation), attacker-controlled code executes inside the server process.\n\n**Configuration requirement:** `GRPC.Codec.Erlpack` is not registered by default and must be explicitly added to the server's `codecs` option.\n\n### PoC\n\n1. Start a gRPC server with `codecs: [GRPC.Codec.Erlpack]`.\n2. Open an HTTP/2 connection to the server.\n3. Send a gRPC-framed POST to any RPC path with `Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack` and a body of `:erlang.term_to_binary(fn -\u003e \u003cmalicious_code\u003e end)`.\n4. The server's `decode/2` materializes the fun; any downstream call site that invokes the decoded value executes the attacker's code.\n5. For DoS only: send payloads encoding fresh atoms in a loop until the atom table is exhausted and the VM crashes.\n\n### Impact\n\nAffects `grpc` ≥ 0.4.0. Any server that explicitly registers `GRPC.Codec.Erlpack` is vulnerable to unauthenticated node-level DoS and potentially RCE.\n\n### References\n\n* Introduction commit: https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/25bcc569fe2cc4478531a6c546c923205fc751c9\n* Patch commit: https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/272a97a5ea1b46af1819f14a831fcf35fc91f992","status":"published","published":"2026-08-25T18:09:53Z","modified":"2026-08-25T18:09:54Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:41:05.994358Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2026-48853","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.\n\n'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T23:16:45.663Z","modified":"2026-10-25T23:10:00.167Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS: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/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X","level":"critical","assessor":"secondary"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:12:24.19758Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2026-48853","title":"Remote code execution and denial of service via unsafe Erlang term deserialization in elixir-grpc/grpc","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.\n\n'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T21:56:15.262Z","modified":"2026-10-28T02:31:08.741928389Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:45:06.701612Z"},{"id":"EEF-CVE-2026-48853","title":"Remote code execution and denial of service via unsafe Erlang term deserialization in elixir-grpc/grpc","description":"## Summary\n\nDeserialization 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.\n\n`'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.\n\nThis issue affects grpc: from 0.4.0 before 1.0.0.\n\n## Configurations\n\n`GRPC.Codec.Erlpack` must be explicitly registered as a codec on the gRPC server.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T21:56:15.262Z","modified":"2026-09-24T21:15:02.933768376Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:33.047032Z"},{"id":"GHSA-grp7-v8xh-rj7h","title":"gRPC Erlang package vulnerable to Remote Code Execution with attacker-controlled gRPC payloads","description":"### Summary\n\n`GRPC.Codec.Erlpack.decode/2` calls `:erlang.binary_to_term/1` directly on the raw gRPC message body without the `:safe` option. Any unauthenticated peer that can reach a gRPC endpoint with `Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack` can crash the entire BEAM node via atom table exhaustion or, if a decoded fun term flows into a call site that invokes it, achieve remote code execution inside the server process.\n\n### Details\n\n**Root cause** — `lib/grpc/codec/erlpack.ex` implements `decode/2` as a bare `:erlang.binary_to_term(binary)` call with no `:safe` flag, no size limit, and no type validation. This has two independent exploitation paths:\n\n**1. DoS via atom exhaustion** — BEAM atoms are never garbage-collected and the global atom table is bounded (~1,048,576 entries). A crafted payload encoding large numbers of fresh atoms saturates the table and crashes the entire VM, taking down all applications on the node.\n\n**2. RCE via fun materialization** — Without `:safe`, `binary_to_term/1` reconstructs fun and external-fun terms from wire data. If the decoded value reaches any call site that applies it (e.g. `Enum.map`, `Task.async`, direct invocation), attacker-controlled code executes inside the server process.\n\n**Configuration requirement:** `GRPC.Codec.Erlpack` is not registered by default and must be explicitly added to the server's `codecs` option.\n\n### PoC\n\n1. Start a gRPC server with `codecs: [GRPC.Codec.Erlpack]`.\n2. Open an HTTP/2 connection to the server.\n3. Send a gRPC-framed POST to any RPC path with `Content-Type: application/grpc+erlpack` and a body of `:erlang.term_to_binary(fn -\u003e \u003cmalicious_code\u003e end)`.\n4. The server's `decode/2` materializes the fun; any downstream call site that invokes the decoded value executes the attacker's code.\n5. For DoS only: send payloads encoding fresh atoms in a loop until the atom table is exhausted and the VM crashes.\n\n### Impact\n\nAffects `grpc` ≥ 0.4.0. Any server that explicitly registers `GRPC.Codec.Erlpack` is vulnerable to unauthenticated node-level DoS and potentially RCE.\n\n### References\n\n* Introduction commit: https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/25bcc569fe2cc4478531a6c546c923205fc751c9\n* Patch commit: https://github.com/elixir-grpc/grpc/commit/272a97a5ea1b46af1819f14a831fcf35fc91f992","status":"published","published":"2026-08-25T18:09:53Z","modified":"2026-08-26T00:38:22.351289558Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"cwes":["CWE-502","CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:48.191583Z"},{"id":"UBUNTU-CVE-2026-48853","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.","status":"published","published":"2026-06-15T23:16:00Z","modified":"2026-10-17T12:56:06.363037698Z","cvss":[{"version":"4.0","score":9.2,"vector":"CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","level":"critical"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T16:56:33.391918Z"}]}}