CVE-2026-123610

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

Summary

The built-in (but disabled by default) Brotli certificate decoder bounds the output buffer but accepts an input-selected history window. A header of five bytes can specify a 1 GiB window allocation. A peer can abort a process whose allocator cannot satisfy that request. A client must enable Brotli and connect to the peer; a server must enable Brotli and request a client certificate. Neither direction requires a trusted attacker certificate.

Details

rustls calls BrotliDecompress which enables Brotli's large-window extension. rustls applies a limit to certificates, but this applies to the decompressed result, and not to any internal allocations the process requires.

Impact

Client applications that enable the brotli feature will be vulnerable to malicious servers. Server applications that enable the brotli feature and enable client authentication will be vulnerable to malicious clients.

Potential for denial of service due to memory exhaustion from peers sending malicious Brotli-encoded certificates, for applications that enable Brotli decompression.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to OpenAI OutboundDisclosures@openai.com for the disclosure.

The built-in Brotli certificate decompressor (enabled by the non-default brotli crate feature) bounded the size of the decompressed output, but accepted a peer-selected history window. Brotli's large-window extension was enabled, so a five-byte header could cause an allocation of 1 GiB. A peer can abort a process whose allocator cannot satisfy that request.

No trusted certificate is required by the attacker. Affected configurations are:

• clients that enable the brotli feature and connect to a malicious server, and
• servers that enable the brotli feature and request client certificates.

Applications that do not enable the brotli feature are not affected.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.

rustls before 0.23.46 contains an uncontrolled memory allocation flaw in its optional Brotli certificate decompression, which limits decompressed output size but accepts an input-selected large history window. Malicious peers can send a certificate with a five-byte Brotli header requesting up to 1 GiB before authentication, aborting Brotli-enabled clients or client-authenticating servers whose allocator cannot satisfy the request.