CVE-2026-61544: libp2p-quic Remote Panic Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q
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Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-61544 is a HIGH remote panic vulnerability (General Security Weakness) affecting libp2p-quic libraries in the crates.io ecosystem. The issue involves remote panic via certificate expiry race during quic handshake. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 0.13.1.

CVE-2026-61544 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-61544
GHSA Identifier GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score N/A
CWE Classification General Security Weakness
Affected Product libp2p-quic
Package Ecosystem crates.io
Published Date
Last Updated

How to Fix CVE-2026-61544

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected libp2p-quic dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

libp2p-quic fixed: 0.13.1 
Upgrade libp2p-quic to 0.13.1
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for libp2p-quic

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2026-61544, inspect your project dependencies for libp2p-quic:

inspect dependencies for libp2p-quic

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of libp2p-quic in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 0.13.1), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under General Security Weakness. In libp2p-quic, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### 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: https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/blob/969b707bf1177ebebd1febc285c3fd22793b95c5/transports/quic/src/connection/connecting.rs#L65-L66 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: 1. Opening a QUIC connection to a libp2p QUIC listener. 2. Presenting a valid libp2p TLS certificate with a very short lifetime. 3. Allowing the initial handshake-time certificate validation to succeed. 4. Withholding the final client handshake fragment packet until after the certificate expires, but before the QUIC handshake timeout elapses. 5. 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.

CVE-2026-61544 Affected libp2p-quic Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
0.13.1
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
libp2p-quic
 crates.io
< 0.13.1
0.13.1

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/security/advisories/GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q
libp2p-quic Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/pull/6525
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/commit/212f3774af048e2cecfb2e6b1e08477685e52b22
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/commit/e8f35e12c2418b04df6e9cdf036005e8aee3c7a2
libp2p-quic Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-61544?
CVE-2026-61544 is a security vulnerability in libp2p-quic involving Remote panic via certificate expiry race during QUIC handshake under General Security Weakness.
Which libp2p-quic versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 0.13.1 across affected packages: libp2p-quic.
What version fixes CVE-2026-61544?
Upgrading to 0.13.1 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is libp2p-quic affected?
Yes, libp2p-quic is affected in releases prior to 0.13.1. Upgrade your dependency to 0.13.1 or later.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-61544?
CVE-2026-61544 is classified under General Security Weakness.
How can I check crates.io dependencies for CVE-2026-61544?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for libp2p-quic'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q",
  "modified" : "2026-09-15T20:01:17Z",
  "published" : "2026-09-15T20:01:17Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-61544" ],
  "summary" : "libp2p-quic: Remote panic via certificate expiry race during QUIC handshake",
  "details" : "### Summary\n\n`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.\n\nThis is remotely reachable by a network peer and can crash applications exposing a libp2p QUIC listener.\n\n### Details\nDuring 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:\n\nhttps://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/blob/969b707bf1177ebebd1febc285c3fd22793b95c5/transports/quic/src/connection/connecting.rs#L65-L66\n\nHowever, `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.\n\n\n### PoC\nA malicious peer can trigger this by:\n1. Opening a QUIC connection to a libp2p QUIC listener.\n2. Presenting a valid libp2p TLS certificate with a very short lifetime.\n3. Allowing the initial handshake-time certificate validation to succeed.\n4. Withholding the final client handshake fragment packet until after the certificate expires, but before the QUIC handshake timeout elapses.\n5. The listener completes the handshake and hits the post-handshake certificate re-parse, which panics.\n\n### Impact\nRemote 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.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "crates.io",
      "name" : "libp2p-quic"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "0.13.1"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/security/advisories/GHSA-5hq8-qhww-jm7q"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/pull/6525"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/commit/212f3774af048e2cecfb2e6b1e08477685e52b22"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p/commit/e8f35e12c2418b04df6e9cdf036005e8aee3c7a2"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-09-15T20:01:17Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : null
  }
}