CVE-2026-16318: CWE-401 Missing release of memory after effective lifetime in Amazon s2n-tls
The QUIC transport parameters extension handler in s2n-tls incorrectly uses s2n_alloc instead of s2n_realloc to store the peer's transport parameters. When a TLS 1.3 connection goes through a HelloRetryRequest, the handler is called twice on the same connection. On the second call, s2n_alloc zeroes the existing pointer before allocating new memory, causing the first allocation to be leaked. This can occur during normal QUIC traffic when a client offers a key share group the server does not prefer. An unauthenticated user can amplify the issue by deliberately forcing HelloRetryRequests, causing up to approximately 64 KB of unreachable memory per handshake. Over time, this can lead to increased memory consumption on long-running server processes. The unreachable memory is only reclaimed when the process is restarted. Only server-side QUIC-enabled deployments are affected. Non-QUIC TLS connections are not affected. We recommend you upgrade s2n-tls to version v1.7.6
CVE-2026-16318: CWE-401 Missing release of memory after effective lifetime in Amazon s2n-tls
Description
The QUIC transport parameters extension handler in s2n-tls incorrectly uses s2n_alloc instead of s2n_realloc to store the peer's transport parameters. When a TLS 1.3 connection goes through a HelloRetryRequest, the handler is called twice on the same connection. On the second call, s2n_alloc zeroes the existing pointer before allocating new memory, causing the first allocation to be leaked. This can occur during normal QUIC traffic when a client offers a key share group the server does not prefer. An unauthenticated user can amplify the issue by deliberately forcing HelloRetryRequests, causing up to approximately 64 KB of unreachable memory per handshake. Over time, this can lead to increased memory consumption on long-running server processes. The unreachable memory is only reclaimed when the process is restarted. Only server-side QUIC-enabled deployments are affected. Non-QUIC TLS connections are not affected. We recommend you upgrade s2n-tls to version v1.7.6
CVSS v3.1
Score 5.3medium
Weaknesses
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- AMZN
- Date Reserved
- 2026-07-20T16:42:03.595Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 6a5fdc219c2644c7f8ba047b
Added to database: 07/21/2026, 20:52:49 UTC
Last enriched: 07/21/2026, 21:06:27 UTC
Last updated: 07/31/2026, 19:22:57 UTC
Views: 31
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