GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q — libp2p-quic
Fix: libp2p/rust-libp2p#6525GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q is a CWE-248 vulnerability in libp2p-quic. A fix is available for libp2p-quic — see the affected versions and patch details below.
libp2p-quic: Remote panic via certificate expiry race during QUIC handshake
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 GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
Real-World Exposure
libp2p-quicReal-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
libp2p-quic can panic on an inbound QUIC handshake if a malicious peer presents a valid, short lived libp2p TLS certificate and delays the final TLS 1.3 handshake fragment until the certificate expires.
This is remotely reachable by a network peer and can crash applications exposing a libp2p QUIC listener.
Details
During the TLS handshake, libp2p-tls parses and validates the peer certificate. After Quinn reports handshake completion, libp2p-quic re-parses the same certificate in the post-handshake upgrade path and assumes this cannot fail:
However, libp2p_tls::certificate::parse() re-runs certificate verification on every call, including a wall-clock validity check. A certificate that was valid during the first handshake time parse can expire before the second post-handshake parse, causing the expect(...) to panic.
PoC
A malicious peer can trigger this by:
- Opening a QUIC connection to a libp2p QUIC listener.
- Presenting a valid libp2p TLS certificate with a very short lifetime.
- Allowing the initial handshake-time certificate validation to succeed.
- Withholding the final client handshake fragment packet until after the certificate expires, but before the QUIC handshake timeout elapses.
- The listener completes the handshake and hits the post-handshake certificate re-parse, which panics.
Impact
Remote unauthenticated denial of service. Any application exposing an affected libp2p-quic listener can be crashed by a network peer that performs a valid-looking QUIC/TLS handshake with attacker-controlled timing. No malformed packets are required.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | libp2p-quic | all versions | 0.13.1cargo update -p libp2p-quic --precise 0.13.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for libp2p-quic, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update libp2p-quic to 0.13.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.