elixir-lang elixir up to 1.20.0 Version Parser lib/version.ex resource consumption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in elixir-lang elixir up to 1.20.0. It has been declared as problematic. Impacted is an unknown function in the library lib/version.ex of the component Version Parser. Executing a manipulation can lead to resource consumption. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-49762. The attack needs to be launched locally. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as problematic was found in elixir-lang elixir up to 1.20.0. This vulnerability affects some unknown processing in the library lib/version.ex of the component Version Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a resource consumption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-400. The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource, thereby enabling an actor to influence the amount of resources consumed, eventually leading to the exhaustion of available resources. As an impact it is known to affect availability. CVE summarizes:

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in the Elixir standard library's Version module allows an attacker who controls a version string to cause a denial of service through CPU and memory exhaustion. The version parser converts numeric version components (major, minor, patch and numeric pre-release/build identifiers) to integers without bounding their length. A single large all-digit component therefore forces a super-linear, non-yielding base-10 to arbitrary-precision integer conversion (String.to_integer/1, i.e. :erlang.binary_to_integer/1) that pins a BEAM scheduler, and a larger component raises an uncaught SystemLimitError that crashes the calling process. A single moderately sized string (around one megabyte) is enough; no authentication is required. This is reachable from the public entry points Version.parse/1, Version.parse!/1, Version.match?/3, Version.compare/2, and Version.parse_requirement/1, which applications routinely call on untrusted input such as HTTP parameters, dependency-manifest fields, and package metadata. This vulnerability is associated with program files lib/version.ex and program routines 'Elixir.Version.Parser':parse_digits/2. This issue affects Elixir: from 1.5.0 before 1.20.1.

The weakness was published by Peter Ullrich and Jonatan Männchen as GHSA-w2h8-8x3g-278p. The advisory is available at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-49762 since 06/01/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

Upgrading to version 1.20.1 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch c64417d72fd5c7d09e963ca3ac5fa2b140978d9e is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• elixir-lang

Name

• elixir

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6
• 1.7
• 1.8
• 1.9
• 1.10
• 1.11
• 1.12
• 1.13
• 1.14
• 1.15
• 1.16
• 1.17
• 1.18
• 1.19
• 1.20.0

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/

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