{"affected":[{"ranges":[{"events":[{"introduced":"9718f2b90ce086ff8614d5782f4ec528495c98dd"},{"fixed":"1eff1acffd49bdcc0d7f57ca74c1603328eed68a"},{"fixed":"5230d73968f1b4969d2a2646786fa6c71475f5cc"},{"fixed":"a983c8c043b1fbf1d95df78a29149222dac2988c"},{"fixed":"0bba5887577b1e328da825bd018815fdc519685a"}],"repo":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir","type":"GIT"}]}],"aliases":["GHSA-jf5q-v438-665c","CVE-2026-75758"],"credits":[{"name":"Thomas Cioppettini / Scalpel Software Inc","type":"REPORTER"},{"name":"José Valim","type":"REMEDIATION_DEVELOPER"},{"name":"Jonatan Männchen / EEF","type":"COORDINATOR"}],"database_specific":{"capec_ids":["CAPEC-130"],"cpe_ids":["cpe:2.3:a:elixir-lang:elixir:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"],"cwe_ids":["CWE-674"]},"details":"## Summary\n\nUncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in the Elixir standard library allows an attacker who controls a list passed to inspect/1, List.to\\_string/1, or List.to\\_charlist/1 to exhaust a BEAM node's memory.\n\nInspect.List's charlist branch in lib/elixir/lib/inspect.ex classifies a list as a charlist using List.ascii\\_printable?/2, which examines only the first :printable\\_limit (4096 by default) elements, and then calls IO.chardata\\_to\\_string/1 on the whole term. A list whose printable prefix exceeds that limit but which contains a later element that is not a code point (an atom, an out-of-range integer, or an improper tail) is therefore mis-classified, and the conversion raises ArgumentError. That conversion runs inside List.to\\_string/1, whose rescue clause builds its message by interpolating inspect(list), which re-enters the same branch and raises again. The nested inspection is an argument to raise, so the recursion is not in tail position and every level is retained: the process stack grows monotonically while each cycle re-walks the list, until the process is killed by max\\_heap\\_size or, by default, the node runs out of memory. List.to\\_charlist/1 has the same rescue shape.\n\nBelow the printable limit the inner inspect/1 sees the invalid element within its counter and renders the list in ordinary bracket form, so a single ArgumentError is raised and no recursion occurs.\n\nThis issue affects elixir: from 1.15.0-rc.0 before 1.18.5, from 1.19.0-rc.0 before 1.19.6, and from 1.20.0-rc.0 before 1.20.4.\n\n## Workaround\n\nInstall a global inspect function that renders lists as lists rather than inferring charlists, by calling Inspect.Opts.default\\_inspect\\_fun/1 with fn term, opts -> Inspect.inspect(term, %{opts | charlists: :as\\_lists}) end from the application's start callback. This keeps the charlist branch from being entered at all, so the mis-inferred conversion never raises and the error path cannot recurse.\n\nThe trade-off is global: charlists then render in bracket form, so ~c\"abc\" inspects as \\[97, 98, 99\\] everywhere in the application, including in logs and error reports.","id":"EEF-CVE-2026-75758","modified":"2026-08-28T11:28:53.851773Z","published":"2026-08-28T11:28:53.505Z","references":[{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/security/advisories/GHSA-jf5q-v438-665c"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-75758.html"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/commit/1eff1acffd49bdcc0d7f57ca74c1603328eed68a"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/commit/5230d73968f1b4969d2a2646786fa6c71475f5cc"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/commit/a983c8c043b1fbf1d95df78a29149222dac2988c"},{"type":"FIX","url":"https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/commit/0bba5887577b1e328da825bd018815fdc519685a"}],"related":[],"schema_version":"1.7.3","severity":[{"score":"CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N","type":"CVSS_V4"}],"summary":"Unbounded recursion between Inspect.List charlist rendering and List.to_string/1 error path in Elixir","upstream":[]}