Researchers Spot Surge in Erlang/OTP SSH RCE Exploits, 70% Target OT Firewalls
Aug 11, 2025
Vulnerability / Network Security
Malicious actors have been observed exploiting a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Erlang/Open Telecom Platform (OTP) SSH as early as beginning of May 2025, with about 70% of detections originating from firewalls protecting operational technology (OT) networks. The vulnerability in question is CVE-2025-32433 (CVSS score: 10.0), a missing authentication issue that could be abused by an attacker with network access to an Erlang/OTP SSH server to execute arbitrary code. It was patched in April 2025 with versions OTP-27.3.3, OTP-26.2.5.11, and OTP-25.3.2.20. Then in June 2025, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added the flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, based on evidence of active exploitation. "At the heart of Erlang/OTP's secure communication capabilities lies its native SSH implementation — responsible for encrypted connections, file transfers and most importantly, command execution," Palo Alto Networks U...
