CVE-2026-69664 httpd parks a request worker indefinitely on a malformed chunk size sent after the headers
Unauthenticated remote attackers can cause denial of service in Erlang OTP httpd by sending malformed chunked requests that permanently occupy worker threads.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-69664?
CVE-2026-69664 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Erlang OTP, published on 1 Sep 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Missing Release of Resource after Effective Lifetime vulnerability in Erlang/OTP inets httpd allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to cause denial of service by sending a request with a chunked body whose chunk-size line is not a hexadecimal number. The worker serving the connection is never released and no timeout reclaims it, so repeating the request across connections occupies every available worker and denies service to legitimate clients. No authentication is required and the default configuration is affected.
The chunk-size line must arrive in a write separate from the headers. When the body accompanies the headers, httpd_request_handler:handle_body/3 calls http_chunk:decode/3 inside a try ... catch throw:Error, so the {error, {chunk_size, _}} thrown by http_chunk:decode_size/4 is answered with 400 Bad Request. When the chunk size arrives later, the decoder is resumed through a bare catch in httpd_request_handler:handle_info/2, which converts the throw into a return value rather than raising it; the resulting error tuple is then treated as the next decoder continuation, the socket is re-armed, and the worker waits for data that never comes. The request timeout has already been cancelled at the point the headers were accepted, and the periodic byte-rate check is only armed when minimum_bytes_per_second is configured, which it is not by default.
This issue affects OTP from OTP 18.1.4 before OTP 27.3.4.17, OTP 28.5.0.6, and OTP 29.0.6, corresponding to inets from 6.0.3 before 9.3.2.7, 9.6.2.3, and 9.7.2.
Weakness: CWE-772
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-69664?
How do I fix CVE-2026-69664?
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-2026-69664 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-69664 exists.
Sources
Also known as AZL-98466, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-69664, EEF-CVE-2026-69664, GHSA-mr35-8h7w-w3gq, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-69664.