High severity · published Jun 9, 2026
CVE-2026-34183
Unbounded Memory Growth in the QUIC PATH_CHALLENGE Handler
7.5
CVSS
1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Issue summary: Remote peer may exhaust heap memory of the QUIC
server or client by flooding it with packets containing PATH_CHALLENGE
frames.
Impact summary: A malicious remote peer can cause an unbounded
memory allocation which can lead to an abnormal termination of the
application acting as a QUIC client or server and a Denial of Service.
A remote peer may exhaust heap memory by flooding the local
QUIC stack with PATH_CHALLENGE frames. The local QUIC stack
allocates a PATH_RESPONSE frame for every PATH_CHALLENGE it receives.
The allocated PATH_RESPONSE frame gets freed only when the remote
peer acknowledges reception of the PATH_RESPONSE frame which will
not be done by a malicious peer.
The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by
this issue. The QUIC stack is outside of OpenSSL FIPS module
boundary.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)1.0% · higher than 64% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
OP
OpenSSL · OpenSSL
4.0.0 before 4.0.1; 3.6.0 before 3.6.3; 3.5.0 before 3.5.7; 3.4.0 before 3.4.6 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-34183
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-34183
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/5b306efb0b3779dfdd0803b4afc9d08c91f11517
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/7d06955ebe0ecf8adfd4c1e92018586da47ef9ac
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/d2e9efbe4900a373227deb136e8665401404ffac
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/fbaa83859c01ad64f497b757aaf51be7d05ed9eb
Vendor Advisory
https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260609.txt
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