# CVE-2026-48597: Atom table exhaustion via untrusted URL scheme in Tesla.Adapter.Mint

> An attacker can crash the Elixir VM by exhausting the atom table through unvalidated URL schemes in Tesla.Adapter.Mint, requiring an upgrade to fix.

- **Severity:** High 8.2 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 2 Jun 2026
- **Updated:** 24 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** EEF-CVE-2026-48597, GHSA-h74c-q9j7-mpcm

## What is CVE-2026-48597?

CVE-2026-48597 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in elixir-tesla tesla, published on 2 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in elixir-tesla tesla allows denial of service via atom table exhaustion in Tesla.Adapter.Mint.

Tesla.Adapter.Mint.open_conn/2 converts the URL scheme of every outgoing request to a BEAM atom via String.to_atom(uri.scheme) with no allow-list validation. BEAM atoms are never garbage-collected and the atom table is bounded (approximately 1,048,576 entries by default). An attacker who can influence the URL of a Tesla request — either via an application-level URL-forwarding feature (webhook, proxy, importer) or via a Location header returned by a server when Tesla.Middleware.FollowRedirects is in the pipeline — can mint one fresh permanent atom per request by varying the scheme string. After enough requests the atom table fills and the VM crashes, taking down the entire application.

This issue affects tesla: from 1.3.0 before 1.18.3.

Weakness: CWE-770 (Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-48597?

3 open source packages ship an affected version, including tesla. It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `tesla` | Hex | From 1.3.0 | 1.18.3 |
| `tesla` | Hex | From 1.3.0 | 1.18.3 |
| `tesla` | Hex | From 1.3.0 | 1.18.3 |

Products: Elixir-Tesla Tesla.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-48597?

Upgrade tesla to 1.18.3 or later.

## Is CVE-2026-48597 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-48597 exists.

## Other vulnerabilities in elixir-tesla tesla

- [CVE-2026-48594](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48594/): Decompression bomb in Tesla.Middleware.DecompressResponse and Tesla.Middleware.Compression (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2026-48595](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48595/): Authorization header leaks to third-party origin on cross-origin redirect in Tesla.Middleware.FollowRedirects (high 8.2)
- [CVE-2026-48596](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48596/): CRLF injection in Tesla.Multipart.add_content_type_param/2 allows HTTP header injection (low 2.1)
- [CVE-2026-48598](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48598/): CRLF injection in Tesla.Multipart disposition parameters allows multipart part header injection (low 2.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-48597 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-48597 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in elixir-tesla tesla, published on 2 Jun 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-48597 exists.

Affected packages and fixed versions:
- tesla (Hex): affected from 1.3.0; fixed in 1.18.3
- tesla (Hex): affected from 1.3.0; fixed in 1.18.3
- tesla (Hex): affected from 1.3.0; fixed in 1.18.3

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48597/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48597/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-48597
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48597
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-48597

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48597/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.