CVE-2026-58227 Erlang CVE debrief

Who should care

Users of Erlang/OTP versions prior to OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4, and OTP 27.3.4.15 should be aware of this vulnerability. Affected operators, platforms, vulnerability-management, and security teams should review official advisories and assess exposure.

Technical summary

The Erlang/OTP ssl application does not detect cycles when reconstructing an incomplete peer certificate chain during a TLS or DTLS handshake. In ssl_certificate:handle_incomplete_chain/5, the received chain is passed to ssl_certificate:build_certificate_chain/5, which walks issuer relationships via ssl_certificate:do_certificate_chain/7 with no cycle detection and no depth limit. When the peer supplies two mutually cross-signed certificates in unordered form (A issues B, B issues A), the issuer lookup alternates between the two certificates and the pair of functions recurses indefinitely, growing the call stack and chain accumulator without bound.

Defensive priority

High

Recommended defensive actions

• Update to OTP 29.0.4, OTP 28.5.0.4, or OTP 27.3.4.15
• Implement compensating controls such as monitoring and exception tracking
• Review and update certificate chain validation logic
• Confirm whether affected product deployments exist in managed environments and assign an owner for follow-up
• Review the supplied official advisory or CVE record to validate affected scope, severity, and vendor guidance
• Plan vendor-supported updates or mitigations through normal change control where exposure is confirmed
• Check relevant monitoring, detection, and logs for exposed assets that need extra review

Evidence notes

The CVE record was published on 2026-07-27T16:17:56.953Z and has not been modified since then. The NVD entry is currently Received. Evidence is limited to CVE and NVD information. Defenders should verify affected scope, severity, and vendor guidance with official sources.

Official resources