VulnerabilityPublished 30 Oct 2026

CVE-2026-116773: russh's SSH client is susceptible to unbounded allocations via EXT_INFO packets

Affects russhSource GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-116773· Medium 4.3

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.3 Medium : upgrade to 0.65 when convenient.

Data as of 31 Oct 2026, 02:06 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.3Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none

CVSS scores by source
CNA (GitHub_M)	CVSS 3.1	4.3

Patch: Available – fixed in 0.65

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade russh to 0.65.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
crates.iorussh	Affected <0.65	Fixed in 0.65

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available in russh version 0.65 that addresses this unbounded allocation issue. Users should upgrade to version 0.65 or later to mitigate this vulnerability. No other mitigations are indicated or required as the issue is resolved by the official patch.

Description

The russh SSH client versions prior to 0.65 have a vulnerability in their handling of EXT_INFO packets during the pre-authentication phase. The client accumulates extension names from these packets into a vector without any limit or deduplication, allowing a malicious server to cause unbounded memory growth by sending many such packets. This can lead to denial of service via resource exhaustion. The issue is fixed in version 0.65.

Impact

An attacker controlling the SSH server can send a large number of EXT_INFO packets before client authentication, causing the russh client to allocate memory without bounds. This leads to excessive memory consumption on the client side, potentially resulting in denial of service due to resource exhaustion. There is no impact on confidentiality or integrity reported. The vulnerability affects availability by enabling memory exhaustion.

Summary

russh SSH client (v<0.65) has an unbounded memory allocation vulnerability in its pre-authentication packet parser for EXT_INFO packets. The client stores every extension name from these packets into a session vector without clearing, capping, or deduplicating entries. Since EXT_INFO packets are accepted without limit before authentication and the client uses a private message number 7 instead of the standard 82, a malicious server can send a large number of these packets, causing the client's memory usage to grow unboundedly during the session. This accumulation persists for the session lifetime and can exhaust client memory. The vulnerability exists in versions prior to 0.65 and was confirmed with real client execution and proof-of-concept code. The issue is tracked as CVE-2026-116773 and has a CVSS 3.1 score of 4.3 (medium severity).

CWE-770Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #25
The product allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any intended restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated.
Requirements
Clearly specify the minimum and maximum expectations for capabilities, and dictate which behaviors are acceptable when resource allocation reaches limits.
Architecture and Design
Limit the amount of resources that are accessible to unprivileged users. Set per-user limits for resources. Allow the system administrator to define these limits. Be careful to avoid CWE-410.
Architecture and Design
Design throttling mechanisms into the system architecture. The best protection is to limit the amount of resources that an unauthorized user can cause to be expended.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.1 (opens in a new tab)
V11.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
XML Ping of the Death (opens in a new tab)
Exponential Data Expansion (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data Parameter Blowup (opens in a new tab)
Serialized Data with Nested Payloads (opens in a new tab)
Oversized Serialized Data Payloads (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 31 Oct 2026, 02:06 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-770

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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