From 56a4d00a45b297fe5ea461607426dbf95f3868ff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Asriel Camora <asriel@camora.dev>
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2026 16:54:59 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] tls_codec: return an error instead of panicking on truncated
 VLBytes

Signed-off-by: Asriel Camora <asriel@camora.dev>
---
 tls_codec/src/quic_vec.rs       | 12 ------------
 tls_codec/tests/decode_bytes.rs | 25 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tls_codec/src/quic_vec.rs b/tls_codec/src/quic_vec.rs
index a94d9b74a..7fa08b3a9 100644
--- a/tls_codec/src/quic_vec.rs
+++ b/tls_codec/src/quic_vec.rs
@@ -366,12 +366,6 @@ impl DeserializeBytes for VLBytes {
             Ok(vec) => Ok((Self { vec: vec.to_vec() }, &remainder[length..])),
             Err(_e) => {
                 let remaining_len = remainder.len();
-                if !cfg!(fuzzing) {
-                    debug_assert_eq!(
-                        remaining_len, length,
-                        "Expected to read {length} bytes but {remaining_len} were read.",
-                    );
-                }
                 Err(Error::DecodingError(format!(
                     "{remaining_len} bytes were read but {length} were expected",
                 )))
@@ -465,12 +459,6 @@ impl DeserializeBytes for VLByteVec {
             Ok(vec) => Ok((Self { vec: vec.to_vec() }, &remainder[length..])),
             Err(_e) => {
                 let remaining_len = remainder.len();
-                if !cfg!(fuzzing) {
-                    debug_assert_eq!(
-                        remaining_len, length,
-                        "Expected to read {length} bytes but {remaining_len} were read.",
-                    );
-                }
                 Err(Error::DecodingError(format!(
                     "{remaining_len} bytes were read but {length} were expected",
                 )))
diff --git a/tls_codec/tests/decode_bytes.rs b/tls_codec/tests/decode_bytes.rs
index f16c2e320..ec06e77be 100644
--- a/tls_codec/tests/decode_bytes.rs
+++ b/tls_codec/tests/decode_bytes.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
+#![cfg_attr(feature = "future_deprecations", allow(deprecated))]
 use tls_codec::{
     DeserializeBytes, Error, Size, TlsByteVecU8, TlsByteVecU16, TlsByteVecU24, TlsByteVecU32,
-    TlsVecU8,
+    TlsVecU8, VLByteVec, VLBytes,
 };
 
 #[test]
@@ -196,6 +197,28 @@ fn truncated_byte_vec_reports_end_of_stream() {
     );
 }
 
+// Length 4 + 2 content bytes
+#[test]
+fn truncated_vlbytes_reports_decoding_error() {
+    let input = [4u8, 0xAA, 0xBB];
+    let res = VLBytes::tls_deserialize_bytes(&input);
+    assert!(
+        matches!(res, Err(Error::DecodingError(_))),
+        "expected DecodingError, got {res:?}"
+    );
+}
+
+// Same input, but for `VLByteVec`
+#[test]
+fn truncated_vlbytevec_reports_decoding_error() {
+    let input = [4u8, 0xAA, 0xBB];
+    let res = VLByteVec::tls_deserialize_bytes(&input);
+    assert!(
+        matches!(res, Err(Error::DecodingError(_))),
+        "expected DecodingError, got {res:?}"
+    );
+}
+
 // The length-summing overflow/saturation branches only exist on non-64-bit
 // targets (on 64-bit, lengths are bounded by `isize::MAX` and can't overflow
 // `usize`). This test therefore only compiles and runs on 32-bit — e.g. the