Incorrect congestion window growth by invalid ACK ranges
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
Impact Cloudflare quiche was discovered to be vulnerable to incorrect congestion window growth, which could cause it to send data at a rate faster than the path might actually support. An unauthenticated remote attacker can exploit the vulnerability by first completing a handshake and initiating a congestion-controlled data transfer towards itself. Then, it could manipulate the victim's congestion control state by sending ACK frames covering a large range of packet numbers (including packet numbers that had never been sent); see RFC 9000 Section 19.3. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support. In extreme cases, the window might grow beyond the limit of the internal variable's type, leading to an overflow panic. Patches quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | quiche | before 0.24.4 | 0.24.4 | Patch available | CNA |
- quiche VendorCloudflare Affected before 0.24.4 Fixed in 0.24.4 Patch available CNA
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:cloudflare:quiche:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:* | before 0.24.4 | Vulnerable | Cloudflare |
- cpe:2.3:a:cloudflare:quiche:*:*:*:*:*:rust:*:* Versions before 0.24.4 Vulnerable ·Cloudflare
Remediation
- Fix · CNA quiche (Cloudflare) Fixed in 0.24.4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-4821
References
More Cloudflare Quiche vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-06417 Infinite loop triggered by connection ID retirement CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2026-10747 Resource exhaustion in quiche HTTP/3 and QPACK layers CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2024-01642 Unlimited resource allocation by QUIC CRYPTO frames flooding in quiche CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2025-04315 Incorrect congestion window growth by optimistic ACK CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
- TI-2024-01317 Unbounded storage of information related to connection ID retirement, in quiche CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
- TI-2023-05687 Unbounded queuing of path validation messages in cloudflare-quiche CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.3
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences