High severity · published Sep 29, 2026
CVE-2026-84784
QUIC: Unbounded RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID Backlog
7.5
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Issue summary: A malicious remote peer may flood the local QUIC
stack with NEW_CONNECTION_ID frames by avoiding a limit check on
how many connection IDs the remote QUIC stack can use.
Impact summary: The local QUIC stack sends a RETIRE_CONN_ID frame
for every NEW_CONNECTION_ID frame it receives. The RETIRE_CONN_ID
frame is dispatched via the Control Frame Queue (CFQ). If the remote
peer also withholds ACKs, then it can force the local stack
to allocate ~400MB (depending on ACK delay).
CWE: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Description: RFC 9000 sections 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 [1] describe the mechanism
by which a remote peer can notify the local QUIC stack to change the
destination connection ID (a.k.a. CID) the local stack uses to
identify the connection at the remote peer. Each CID is associated
with a sequence number. The sequence number is transmitted
in NEW_CONNECTION_ID and RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID frames to identify the CID
which is being either associated with a connection or retired.
The remote peer sends a NEW_CONNECTION_ID frame to let the local stack know
a new CID is being associated with an existing connection. The
NEW_CONNECTION_ID frame carries the new CID, its sequence number, and the
retire-prior-to number. The retire-prior-to identifies existing
CIDs that are to be retired. The local QUIC stack must send a
RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID for every destination CID whose sequence number
is less than retire-prior-to. The CID becomes retired after the
local stack receives an ACK for its RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID frame.
Although the OpenSSL QUIC stack supports at most one destination CID
for every connection, it can be tricked into processing more than
one RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID frame per connection. The OpenSSL QUIC
stack currently retires the destination CID as soon as it receives
the NEW_CONNECTION_ID, while in fact the destination CID must
be retired after an ACK for the RETIRE_CONNECTION_ID frame is received.
Correcting the flawed logic also fixes the backlog growth.
[1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9000#name-issuing-connection-ids
FIPS impact: no
The FIPS module is not affected as the QUIC implementation is outside of
the 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)0.6% · higher than 49% 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 4.0.3; 3.6.0 before 3.6.5; 3.5.0 before 3.5.9; 3.4.0 before 3.4.8 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-84784
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-84784
vendor-advisory
https://openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260929.txt
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/e9e5155833fa968bee50024bf9ca3a185ab599fe
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/4685c914b0d410b1034f40b547c95bc95e7a380a
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/dba3c48d653c64fcbc9070a17a0ee2b3e2f3af1f
patch
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/9a30fe0fba195c14e5b87bf93c0d0fdb70373806
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