Unbounded atom creation from unsigned LogoutResponse status codes in esaml allows atom table exhaustion
What fixes it
No source in this snapshot names a fixed version. The vendor advisories under References are the place to check.
Description
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling vulnerability in esaml in dropbox esaml allows an unauthenticated attacker to exhaust the Erlang VM atom table and crash the node via unsigned LogoutResponse messages.
esaml:status_code_map/1 in src/esaml.erl maps any StatusCode value it does not recognize to an atom with list_to_atom/1 on the last colon-separated segment of the URN. esaml_sp:validate_logout_response/2 verifies a signature only when the message carries one, so an unsigned LogoutResponse posted to the single-logout endpoint reaches esaml:decode_logout_response/1 and mints one permanent atom per distinct status value. Atoms are never reclaimed and the VM caps the atom table at about one million entries, so an attacker who posts that many distinct values aborts the node.
This issue affects esaml: from 0.1.0 onward.
Text from CVE List
Affected versions 2
- esamlaffected: be692b56245071899757afa7ef47e43593d3de96 and laterCVE List
- esamlaffected: 0.1.0 and laterCVE List
References 5
- github.com/handnot2/esaml/commit/be692b56245071899757afa7ef47e43593d3de96Fixvia CVE List
- github.com/arekinath/esaml/commit/be692b56245071899757afa7ef47e43593d3de96Fixvia CVE List
- github.com/dropbox/esaml/commit/be692b56245071899757afa7ef47e43593d3de96Fixvia CVE List
- cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-86696.htmlAdvisoryvia CVE List
- osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-86696Referencevia CVE List