Issue summary: Remote peer may exhaust heap memory of the QUIC
server or client by flooding it with packets containing PATH_CHALLENGE
frames.

Impact summary: A malicious remote peer can cause an unbounded
memory allocation which can lead to an abnormal termination of the
application acting as a QUIC client or server and a Denial of Service.

A remote peer may exhaust heap memory by flooding the local
QUIC stack with PATH_CHALLENGE frames. The local QUIC stack
allocates a PATH_RESPONSE frame for every PATH_CHALLENGE it receives.
The allocated PATH_RESPONSE frame gets freed only when the remote
peer acknowledges reception of the PATH_RESPONSE frame which will
not be done by a malicious peer.

The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by
this issue. The QUIC stack is outside of OpenSSL FIPS module
boundary.

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History

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Issue summary: Remote peer may exhaust heap memory of the QUIC server or client by flooding it with packets containing PATH_CHALLENGE frames. Impact summary: A malicious remote peer can cause an unbounded memory allocation which can lead to an abnormal termination of the application acting as a QUIC client or server and a Denial of Service. A remote peer may exhaust heap memory by flooding the local QUIC stack with PATH_CHALLENGE frames. The local QUIC stack allocates a PATH_RESPONSE frame for every PATH_CHALLENGE it receives. The allocated PATH_RESPONSE frame gets freed only when the remote peer acknowledges reception of the PATH_RESPONSE frame which will not be done by a malicious peer. The FIPS modules in 4.0, 3.6, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.0 are not affected by this issue. The QUIC stack is outside of OpenSSL FIPS module boundary.
Title Unbounded Memory Growth in the QUIC PATH_CHALLENGE Handler
Weaknesses CWE-1325
References

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: openssl

Published:

Updated: 2026-06-09T16:03:23.623Z

Reserved: 2026-03-26T09:29:36.013Z

Link: CVE-2026-34183

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-06-09T17:17:05.000

Modified: 2026-06-09T17:17:05.000

Link: CVE-2026-34183

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-06-09T17:30:10Z

Weaknesses