Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-61684

H2O Quicly ≤ 2026-01-18

Published
19 January 2026
Modified
27 February 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0033 26th percentile
Risk Priority 57 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-61684 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in H2O Quicly. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004); ranked at the 26th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-61684 is a denial-of-service vulnerability in Quicly, an open-source implementation of the IETF QUIC protocol. Versions of Quicly prior to commit d9d3df6a8530a102b57d840e39b0311ce5c9e14e contain flaws that allow a remote attacker to trigger an assertion failure, causing any process using the library to crash. The issue is associated with CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation) and CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion), and it has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H), indicating high availability impact with network accessibility and no privileges required.

A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending specially crafted QUIC packets to a target system running an affected version of Quicly. Successful exploitation leads to an assertion failure that terminates the process, resulting in a denial of service. The low attack complexity and lack of user interaction make it feasible for attackers to repeatedly trigger crashes, potentially disrupting services relying on QUIC for transport.

Mitigation is available via the fixing commit d9d3df6a8530a102b57d840e39b0311ce5c9e14e, which addresses the assertion failure. Security practitioners should update Quicly to this commit or later. Additional details are provided in the GitHub security advisory GHSA-wr3c-345m-43v9.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Quicly, an IETF QUIC protocol implementation, is susceptible to a denial-of-service attack prior to commit d9d3df6a8530a102b57d840e39b0311ce5c9e14e. A remote attacker can exploit these bugs to trigger an assertion failure that crashes process using Quicly. Commit d9d3df6a8530a102b57d840e39b0311ce5c9e14e fixes the issue.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1499.004 Application or System Exploitation Impact
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities that can cause an application or system to crash and deny availability to users.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1499 Endpoint Denial of Service Impact
Adversaries may perform Endpoint Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to degrade or block the availability of services to users.
T1036.001 Invalid Code Signature Stealth
Adversaries may attempt to mimic features of valid code signatures to increase the chance of deceiving a user, analyst, or tool.
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in an attempt to elevate privileges.
T1203 Exploitation for Client Execution Execution
Adversaries may exploit software vulnerabilities in client applications to execute code.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-44435Same product: H2O Quicly
CVE-2026-44436Same product: H2O Quicly
CVE-2026-44433Same product: H2O Quicly
CVE-2026-44434Same product: H2O Quicly
CVE-2026-8751Same vendor: H2O
CVE-2025-10768Same vendor: H2O
CVE-2025-10769Same vendor: H2O
CVE-2024-39949Shared CWE-20, CWE-617
CVE-2023-32820Shared CWE-20, CWE-617
CVE-2023-28856Shared CWE-20, CWE-617

Affected Assets

h2o
quicly
≤ 2026-01-18

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 6 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing input validation through analysis or test cases.

SI-10 directly requires validity checks on information inputs, structurally preventing improper or missing validation.

Requiring documented development standards and tools can embed input-validation practices into the engineering process.

Security engineering principles discourage use of assertions for handling untrusted input.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly require and enforce input validation during development.

DE.CM-09 partial match
prevents

Runtime monitoring of software can detect assertion-triggered crashes as adverse events.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification processes can discover and record reachable-assertion flaws before deployment.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Testing against a defined set of requirements and using code review plus vulnerability scanning forces validation of inputs and handling of unanticipated conditions, reducing the chance that malformed data will be accepted.

prevents

Secure-coding guidelines and mandatory security testing (including code scans) compel developers to validate and sanitize inputs at design and implementation time, lowering the incidence of malformed or malicious data reaching downstream components.

prevents

Mandating input controls that include integrity checks and input validation ensures that untrusted data is examined before use, blocking the root cause of many injection and malformed-data weaknesses.

prevents

Security-by-design principles explicitly call for data validation and sanitization at every layer, reducing the chance that malformed or malicious input will be processed without scrutiny.

prevents

Requiring language-specific secure coding standards, peer review, SAST and documented mitigation of common programming errors forces validation of all inputs before they are trusted.

none

Regular automated validation of system software and data content, combined with scanning of all inbound files, enforces input validation at the boundary before untrusted content is processed.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

RHEL 8 (1 rule)
  • V-230265 RHEL 8 must prevent the installation of software, patches, service packs, device drivers, or operating system components of local packages without verification they have been digitally signed using a certificate that is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) that is recognized and approved by the organization. prevents CWE-20

References