CVE-2025-48038 Unverified File Handles can Cause Excessive Use of System Resources
Attackers can cause excessive resource consumption in Erlang OTP SSH SFTP modules, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-48038?
CVE-2025-48038 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Erlang OTP, published on 11 Sep 2025. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (ssh_sftp modules) allows Excessive Allocation, Resource Leak Exposure. This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/ssh/src/ssh_sftpd.erl.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 28.0.3, OTP 27.3.4.3 and OTP 26.2.5.15, corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 before 5.3.3, 5.2.11.3 and 5.1.4.12.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-48038?
How do I fix CVE-2025-48038?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-48038 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-48038 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-67115, AZL-67118, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-48038, EEF-CVE-2025-48038, GHSA-pvj7-9652-7h9r, OESA-2025-2368 and 3 more.