CVE-2025-4821
Incorrect congestion window growth by invalid ACK ranges
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.
Attack profile
How easy it is to exploit
- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges needed
- None
- User interaction
- None
What an attacker can affect
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
7.5
Incorrect congestion window growth by invalid ACK ranges
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.
- Record
CVE-2025-4821- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2025-18651
7.5
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.
- Record
EUVD-2025-18651- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
7.5
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.
- Record
CVE-2025-4821- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2025-4821
7.5
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.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2025-4821- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Updated
- 2026-11-03
OSV
7.5
Incorrect congestion window growth by invalid ACK ranges
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.
- Record
CVE-2025-4821- CVSS 3.1
- 7.5 High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
Affected products
Affected packages
History
| Recorded | Changed | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| affected, aliases, facts, references | OSV | |
| first indexed | CVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV |
Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.
In short
CVE-2025-4821 is a high vulnerability (CVSS 7.5) in Cloudflare Quiche, published June 18, 2025. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.98%, the 62nd percentile. Fixed in dnsdist 1.9.11-r0.