Russh: Unbounded memory exhaustion via CHANNEL_OPEN flood during a client-stalled rekey
## Summary A russh **server** can be driven to unbounded heap growth (process OOM / kill) by a peer that speaks only standard SSH messages, in the **default configuration**. The peer starts a key re-exchange (sends `SSH_MSG_KEXINIT`) but never sends the follow-up `SSH_MSG_KEX_ECDH_INIT`, leaving the server's kex state machine in `SessionKexState::InProgress` **indefinitely**. While a rekey is in progress the server's three message-drain paths are all gated off (`if !self.kex.active()`), but the network-read path stays active, so every `SSH_MSG_CHANNEL_OPEN` the peer sends is processed inline and appends one reply to an **unbounded** internal queue (`priority_receiver`, an `UnboundedReceiver`) that is not dequeued until the rekey completes. Because the peer decides whether the rekey ever completes, the queue — and the server's memory — grows without bound. This is reproducible end-to-end against a real russh server over a real encrypted transport; see "Proof of concept". A one-line negative control (same flood, no rekey) keeps memory flat, isolating the rekey window as the sole trigger. ## Impact - **Availability / DoS.** Server RSS climbs at roughly 3.3 KB per `CHANNEL_OPEN`, driven entirely by the peer, until the process is OOM-killed. In the reproduction one connection pushed the server from ~4 MB to **2.57 GB** (and past **4.8 GB** against the stock `echoserver` example) and it was still climbing when the flood was stopped. - **Reached with standard messages, no special co
GHSA-35g8-35p8-c8fw
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: osv:GHSA-35g8-35p8-c8fw
russh
Source reference: /affected/0/package/name
- Affected versions
- Not stated in this record
- Fixed versions
- 0.63.2
Source reference:
/affected/0/ranges - Prerequisites
- Not stated in this record
Structured affected-version data
Original package identities and version rules from this source.
[
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "SEMVER",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "0.63.2"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "russh",
"purl": "pkg:cargo/russh",
"ecosystem": "crates.io"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/09/GHSA-35g8-35p8-c8fw/GHSA-35g8-35p8-c8fw.json",
"last_known_affected_version_range": "<= 0.63.1"
}
}
]- Related CVEs
- CVE-2026-102821
Source reference:
/aliases
Publisher severity
No explicit severity was provided.
- Event
- #51914 · Revision 1
- Added to Heist Feed
- Publisher date