CVE-2024-1765
Published: 12 March 2024
Summary
CVE-2024-1765 is a medium-severity Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (CWE-400) vulnerability in Cloudflare Quiche. Its CVSS base score is 5.9 (Medium).
Operationally, ranked in the top 9.6% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
Cloudflare Quiche versions through 0.19.1 and 0.20.0 contain an unlimited resource allocation flaw (CWE-400, CWE-770) that allows unbounded memory growth on affected QUIC servers or clients. The vulnerability stems from improper handling of incoming frames after the handshake completes, enabling an attacker to trigger rapid consumption of system memory without any authentication or user interaction.
A remote attacker who has completed the QUIC handshake can repeatedly transmit an arbitrary number of 1-RTT CRYPTO frames over the lifetime of the connection. Because the connection duration itself can be extended by the attacker, this leads to sustained memory exhaustion and eventual denial of service on the target system. The CVSS 5.9 score reflects the network attack vector combined with high attack complexity.
The referenced GitHub Security Advisory states that the issue is resolved in quiche 0.19.2 and 0.20.1; users are advised to upgrade to these or later releases. No other mitigation details such as configuration workarounds are provided in the advisory.
EPSS remains flat at 0.0549 with no material increase since disclosure, indicating limited observed exploitation interest to date.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-0855
Vulnerability details
Cloudflare Quiche (through version 0.19.1/0.20.0) was affected by an unlimited resource allocation vulnerability causing rapid increase of memory usage of the system running quiche server or client. A remote attacker could take advantage of this vulnerability by repeatedly sending an…
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unlimited number of 1-RTT CRYPTO frames after previously completing the QUIC handshake. Exploitation was possible for the duration of the connection which could be extended by the attacker. quiche 0.19.2 and 0.20.1 are the earliest versions containing the fix for this issue.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Limiting concurrent sessions directly prevents uncontrolled resource consumption by capping the number of active sessions per user or account.
Contingency plan testing includes resource exhaustion scenarios to verify recovery, making it harder for attackers to sustain exploits that cause uncontrolled consumption.
Updated contingency plans include current procedures to detect, contain, and recover from resource exhaustion, limiting an attacker's ability to sustain impact from uncontrolled consumption.
Alternate site allows resumption of operations if resource exhaustion at the primary site is exploited to cause unavailability.
Alternate telecommunications services enable resumption of essential functions when primary services become unavailable due to uncontrolled resource consumption.
Planning and coordination of security activities (scans, tests, maintenance) directly imposes scheduling and throttling that prevents those activities from producing uncontrolled resource consumption.
Performance metrics and monitoring inherently track resource consumption patterns, making uncontrolled consumption easier to detect and mitigate.
Terminating idle connections bounds resource consumption that would otherwise allow uncontrolled accumulation of open sessions.