webtransport-go: Memory Exhaustion Attack due to Missing Cleanup of Streams Map

Description

Summary

An attacker can cause unbounded memory consumption repeatedly creating and closing many WebTransport streams. Closed streams were not removed from an internal session map, preventing garbage collection of their resources.

Details

webtransport-go maintains an internal map tracking WebTransport streams (both unidirectional and bidirectional) belonging to a session. In affected versions, entries for closed streams were not removed from this map, causing the map to grow indefinitely as streams were created and closed.

A malicious peer can exploit this by opening large numbers of streams and closing them, leading to steady memory growth proportional to the number of closed streams.

The Fix

webtransport-go now removes closed streams from the internal map upon closure. This allows the associated resources to be garbage collected, bounding memory usage to active streams only.

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
medium
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2026-02-12 15:29:11 UTC
Updated
2026-02-12 22:07:43 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2026-02-12 15:29:11 UTC
NVD published
2026-02-12

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.02% 4.69%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
5.3 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-401 Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
CWE-459 Incomplete Cleanup

Affected packages (1)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/quic-go/webtransport-go <= 0.9.0 0.10.0

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence