When a server rejects Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), the client completes the
handshake using the outer ClientHello and authenticates the server against the
ECH config's public_name. At the end of that handshake, rustls encrypted and
queued any application data buffered via ClientConnection::writer() before
queueing the ech_required alert.
The application correctly receives
Error::PeerIncompatible(ServerRejectedEncryptedClientHello), but the next
write_tls() call (needed to send the alert) also sends the buffered
application data. Plaintext meant for the inner server therefore goes to the
client-facing server named by public_name.
That server is authenticated, so this is not exploitable by an unauthenticated
party, but it violates RFC 9849 section 6.1.6, which requires the client to
abort with ech_required "before sending any application data to the server".
This affects only clients that:
EchMode::Enable (GREASE ECH is not affected),The underlying ordering bug is older, but before 0.23.44 the client checked
the server certificate against the inner server name rather than public_name,
so certificate verification failed first and no data was sent.
{
"license": "CC0-1.0"
}