CVE-2026-54886: SSH SFTP server denial of service via extended channel data infinite loop

Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition ('Infinite Loop') vulnerability in Erlang OTP ssh (sshsftpd module) allows an authenticated SFTP user to render an SFTP channel permanently unresponsive.

The handledata/4 function in sshsftpd contains a catch-all clause that accepts channel data of any type. When channel data with a non-zero type code (SSHMSGCHANNELEXTENDEDDATA) arrives with an empty pending buffer and a payload at or below the SFTP packet size limit, the clause tail-calls itself with identical arguments, creating an infinite loop.

The SFTP protocol operates exclusively on normal channel data (type 0). Extended data (non-zero type) is meaningless for SFTP and is never sent by conforming clients. However, the SSH protocol permits any channel participant to send extended data on an open channel, so an authenticated SFTP client can trigger the loop by sending SSHMSGCHANNELEXTENDEDDATA with any datatypecode and any non-empty payload at or below the size limit.

The targeted sshsftpd process enters an infinite tail-recursive loop. It never processes another message, its message queue grows without bound, and it can only be stopped by killing the process. BEAM's reduction-based scheduler preemption continues to function, so other processes on the node are not starved, but each stuck channel process consumes its full CPU time share continuously and accumulates unbounded message queue memory. Opening many channels amplifies the CPU and memory impact.

Erlang/OTP SSH configurations using the default maxchannels setting (infinity) allow an authenticated user to open unlimited channels per connection, amplifying the attack without requiring multiple TCP connections or authentications.

No file contents, credentials, or write access are obtainable through this issue. The impact is limited to denial of service on targeted SFTP channels, with secondary CPU degradation and memory growth.

This vulnerability is associated with program file lib/ssh/src/sshsftpd.erl and program routine sshsftpd:handledata/4.

This issue affects OTP from OTP 17.0 before OTP 29.0.3, OTP 28.5.0.3 and OTP 27.3.4.14, corresponding to ssh from 3.0.1 before 6.0.2, 5.5.2.2 and 5.2.11.9.