Potential CPU DoS via O(n^2) Fragment Reassembly in QUIC
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.
CVE-2026-42772
Primary source · Revision 1
Imported from structured advisory data. Source references identify upstream records or fields; verify affected versions and your deployed configuration.
Security context
Source reference: cve:CVE-2026-42772
OpenSSL
Source reference: /containers/cna/affected/0/product
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- Not stated in this record
- Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Structured affected-version data
Original package identities and version rules from this source.
[
{
"vendor": "OpenSSL",
"product": "OpenSSL",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "4.0.0",
"lessThan": "4.0.3",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "3.6.0",
"lessThan": "3.6.5",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "3.5.0",
"lessThan": "3.5.9",
"versionType": "semver"
},
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "3.4.0",
"lessThan": "3.4.8",
"versionType": "semver"
}
],
"defaultStatus": "unaffected"
}
]- Related CVEs
- CVE-2026-42772
Source reference:
/cveMetadata/cveId
Publisher severity
No explicit severity was provided.
- Event
- #4913 · Revision 1
- Added to Heist Feed
- Publisher date