CVE-2026-73500
Prior to versions 3.5.33, 3.6.14, and 3.7.1, a network attacker who can reach an etcd TLS listener can open many TCP connections and never send a ClientHello.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.40%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
etcd is a distributed key-value store for the data of a distributed system. Prior to versions 3.5.33, 3.6.14, and 3.7.1, a network attacker who can reach an etcd TLS listener can open many TCP connections and never send a ClientHello. In client/pkg/transport/listener_tls.go, each connection handled by tlsListener.acceptLoop spawns a goroutine that blocks indefinitely inside tls.Conn.Handshake() and remains tracked in the pending map. Unbounded goroutine and map growth can exhaust memory in the etcd process, causing loss of availability for the cluster and, when etcd backs Kubernetes, the control plane. This issue is fixed in versions 3.5.33, 3.6.14, and 3.7.1.
- CVSS 4.0
- 8.7 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 0.40% probability · 33th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-770
- Source
- security-advisories@github.com
References
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/commit/2e07efce9745004eb4773cffaada9b5cdf77cff2
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/commit/89ff6d50796049d4f1136915ba21504b76e7e372
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/commit/8e4dd0679a2c6b095d2a32a749fda2521c7809a3
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/commit/f73cba7d920019f91a1ea1f6697833e42731f057
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/pull/22130
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/tag/v3.5.33
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/tag/v3.6.14
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/releases/tag/v3.7.1
- https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd/security/advisories/GHSA-6vch-q96h-7gc3
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.