Apache Thrift Erlang bindings: Uncontrolled recursion leads to unbounded memory use
Summary
Apache Thrift before 0.25.0 has an uncontrolled recursion and resource allocation flaw in its Erlang bindings. Generated Erlang code that reads structs has no recursion-depth guard, so crafted input can exhaust memory. The CVSS 4.0 score is 8.2 for network attacks without authentication or user interaction, with impact limited to availability. Exposure depends on whether an Erlang service built on Thrift accepts untrusted network input.
Affected
- Apache Thrift Erlang bindings: all versions before 0.25.0
Fixed in
- Apache Thrift 0.25.0 (upstream fix)
- Distribution builds differ, e.g. Red Hat 0.25.0-0.1.hum1 and openSUSE 0.25.0-1.1. Unknown for other distributions; check your distribution's tracker.
Workaround
- No vendor workaround known.
- If no Erlang services using Thrift are in use, exposure is low.
- If such services are in use, restrict network access to them until patched.
Exploitation
- No public exploit code confirmed at the time of research.
- Not listed in the CISA KEV catalog according to one aggregator; not directly verified.
- EPSS 0.00426 (Tenable), indicating a low exploitation probability.
- CISA SSVC: exploitation none, automatable no, technical impact partial.
Our recommendation
- Check software inventories for Erlang applications that include Thrift.
- Upgrade Thrift to 0.25.0 or to the fixed version from your distribution.
- Patch all Thrift components together, including CVE-2026-94650 (C GLib) and CVE-2026-96287 (Perl), which are fixed in the same release.
- Restrict and monitor exposure of internet-facing Erlang Thrift services.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- OSV: BIT-thrift-2026-96288 osv.dev
- Apache mailing list thread 1 lists.apache.org
- Apache mailing list thread 2 lists.apache.org
- Tenable: CVE-2026-96288 www.tenable.com
- Vulners: CVELIST CVE-2026-96288 vulners.com
- Red Hat RHSA-2026:74369 vulners.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 17:15.
Original description (NVD)
Uncontrolled Recursion, Allocation of resources without limits or throttling vulnerability in Apache Thrift Erlang bindings. This issue affects Apache Thrift: before 0.25.0. Users are recommended to upgrade to version 0.25.0, which fixes the issue.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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