CVE-2024-45311 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-670 vulnerability in quinn-proto. A fix is available for quinn-proto — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Denial of service in quinn-proto when using `Endpoint::retry()`
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-45311.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
quinn-protoReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
As of quinn-proto 0.11, it is possible for a server to accept(), retry(), refuse(), or ignore() an Incoming connection. However, calling retry() on an unvalidated connection exposes the server to a likely panic in the following situations:
- Calling
refuseorignoreon the resulting validated connection, if a duplicate initial packet is received- This issue can go undetected until a server's
refuse()/ignore()code path is exercised, such as to stop a denial of service attack.
- This issue can go undetected until a server's
- Accepting when the initial packet for the resulting validated connection fails to decrypt or exhausts connection IDs, if a similar initial packet that successfully decrypts and doesn't exhaust connection IDs is received.
- This issue can go undetected if clients are well-behaved.
The former situation was observed in a real application, while the latter is only theoretical.
Details
Location of panic: https://github.com/quinn-rs/quinn/blob/bb02a12a8435a7732a1d762783eeacbb7e50418e/quinn-proto/src/endpoint.rs#L213
Impact
Denial of service for internet-facing server
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | quinn-proto | ≥ 0.11.0&&< 0.11.7 | 0.11.7cargo update -p quinn-proto --precise 0.11.7 |
Affected Products
quinnquinn_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for quinn-proto, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update quinn-proto to 0.11.7 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-45311 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-45311 in your dependencies?
Find it across crates.io, including transitive dependencies.