CVE-2025-4820
Incorrect congestion window growth by optimistic ACK
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
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
- Low
Exploit likelihood
What each source reports
CVE List Score used
5.3
Incorrect congestion window growth by optimistic ACK
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
Patches
quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
- Record
CVE-2025-4820- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2025-18652
5.3
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
Patches
quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
- Record
EUVD-2025-18652- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-02
NVD
5.3
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
Patches
quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
- Record
CVE-2025-4820- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Weakness
- CWE-770
- Updated
- 2026-11-02
OSVALPINE-CVE-2025-4820
5.3
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
Patches
quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
- Record
ALPINE-CVE-2025-4820- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - Updated
- 2026-11-03
OSV
5.3
Incorrect congestion window growth by optimistic ACK
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 exercising an opportunistic ACK attack; see RFC 9000 Section 21.4. The victim could grow the congestion window beyond typical expectations and allow more bytes in flight than the path might really support.
Patches
quiche 0.24.4 is the earliest version containing the fix for this issue.
- Record
CVE-2025-4820- CVSS 3.1
- 5.3 Medium
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L - 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-2025-4820 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 5.3) 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 0.86%, the 58th percentile. Fixed in dnsdist 1.9.11-r0.