CVE-2026-78228

What it is

Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in ash-project ash_oban allows a user who can drive a trigger's on_error action to fail on the final attempt to exhaust worker CPU and memory, denying service. The generated worker's atomic handle_error/4 runs the trigger's on_error action on a job's final attempt inside a rescue that, when the action itself raises, calls handle_error/4 again with the same job. The job's attempt still equals max_attempts, so it re-enters the same clause and re-runs the failing action, with no exit. Any deterministic on_error failure (a data-layer outage, a misconfigured action, or a record the action rejects) loops forever; because the recursive call is not in tail position, each iteration retains a formatted stacktrace and the process heap grows without bound while the failing statement is re-issued against the data layer until the runtime kills the worker. This issue affects ash_oban: from 0.8.0-rc.1 before 0.8.14.

At a glance

Exploitability

Can be exploited locally on the machine without logging in. High risk of service disruption.

Exploit odds

0.2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days (EPSS).

Fix

A patch, advisory or fixed version is referenced. Upgrade or apply it.

Timeline

1. 2026-08-30 12:17 UTC PublishedDisclosed publicly on CVE.org and NVD
2. 2026-09-01 21:15 UTC Last updatedMost recent change to the record

Why it ranks here

• Exploited in the wild: no, CISA does not list it.
• Exploit odds: 0.2% in the next 30 days (EPSS).
• Severity: 5.9 MEDIUM (CVSS).
• Fix: a patch or advisory is linked.

Details

Published

2026-08-30 12:17 UTC

Last modified

2026-09-01 21:15 UTC

Exploit probability

0.2% · EPSS, next 30 days

Weakness

CWE-674

Record status

Deferred

Attack profile CVSS 4.0 · 5.9

Attack vector

Local

Complexity

Low

Attack requirements

Present

Privileges needed

None

User interaction

None

Confidentiality

None

Integrity

None

Availability

High

Is it in your code?

Hand this to your coding agent. It searches your project for the affected products and checks versions. Nothing leaves your machine.

Read https://cve-list.com/agent/cve/CVE-2026-78228.md and follow it. Check whether this project is affected by CVE-2026-78228. Read only. Don't change anything and don't upload my code. Tell me yes, no or not sure, with the file as proof.

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