High severity · published Aug 25, 2026
CVE-2026-63075
QUIC ACK-only Packet Retention Can Cause Memory Exhaustion
7.5
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Issue summary: When OpenSSL processes QUIC traffic from a peer that repeatedly
sends ack-eliciting packets while not acknowledging ACK-only responses, the
QUIC stack can retain ACK-only packet metadata for the lifetime of the
connection.
Impact summary: A remote peer that can complete a QUIC handshake can
cause connection-scoped memory growth which may lead to Denial of Service
through memory exhaustion, especially with sustained traffic or many concurrent
QUIC connections.
CWE: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Description: When the OpenSSL QUIC stack sends an ACK-only packet,
there is no requirement by the QUIC protocol that the peer will acknowledge
that ACK-only packet (i.e. it is itself not ack-eliciting). However, the OpenSSL
implementation stores the metadata about the ACK frames regardless.
In and of itself that's ok, but if a malicious peer establishes a connection, and
then drives the connection such that ACK-only packets are forced from the
OpenSSL implementation peer (i.e., by sending numerous PING frames),
and then withholding any subsequent acks for ack-eliciting data, like
legitimate data, said malicious peer can force inappropriate memory growth
on the OpenSSL peer, potentially leading to a Denial of Service.
The fix is to ensure that we account for the transmission of the ACK-only
packet in the packet histories high and low watermark without actually storing
the ACK-only packet metadata itself.
FIPS impact: no
The OpenSSL FIPS module is not affected as the QUIC code is
outside the 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)0.6% · higher than 47% 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 4.0.2; 3.6.0 before 3.6.4; 3.5.0 before 3.5.8; 3.4.0 before 3.4.7 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-63075
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-63075
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/7308946576b12e64b8be53bcf0a120354b2b42bc
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/7c98d79738549df92868e7dd9be4bbf061eed709
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/bf84721c2548351176e367e6de505792f0118dc6
Patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/c902e5f16d6a9e130e96d3ca6d8f64d71652e393
Vendor Advisory
https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260825.txt
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