OpenSSL: Potential CPU DoS via O(n^2) Fragment Reassembly in QUIC
What fixes it
A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.
Description
Issue summary: The QUIC stream reassembly algorithm performance deteriorates progressively as packets are arriving out of order. The worst case has a quadratic complexity proportional to the number of stream frames kept in the buffer for the received stream data.
Impact summary: A remote QUIC peer that completes the handshake can create a connection-scoped CPU pressure and potentially a Denial of Service using compliant STREAM frames inside the advertised receive window, with low attacker bandwidth.
CWE: CWE-407: Inefficient Algorithmic Complexity
Description: OpenSSL manages received QUIC stream fragments using a doubly-linked list. While it optimizes for append operations (at the end of the list), it falls back to a head-to-tail linear search for any fragment that does not immediately follow the current tail.
By manipulating the sequence of offsets, an attacker can force the server to perform O(n^2) operations, consuming excessive CPU time for the QUIC process.
FIPS impact: no The FIPS module is not affected as the QUIC implementation is outside of the OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Text from CVE List
Affected versions 4
- OpenSSLaffected: 4.0.0 before 4.0.3CVE List
- OpenSSLaffected: 3.6.0 before 3.6.5CVE List
- OpenSSLaffected: 3.5.0 before 3.5.9CVE List
- OpenSSLaffected: 3.4.0 before 3.4.8CVE List
References 5
- github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/f42ae513bbda513b3c121d54834040ee4a0eae1aFixvia CVE List
- github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/32d0ed8afe1b8c3e7ece725b44663da3d7087a09Fixvia CVE List
- github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/ca8402e273af4de5b3f04fa61a0f0c02ce3ae20eFixvia CVE List
- github.com/openssl/openssl/commit/eb2becc0a4baea7f3050a247834d0e5c2ebe1773Fixvia CVE List
- openssl-library.org/news/secadv/20260929.txtAdvisoryvia CVE List