diff --git a/doc/api/net.md b/doc/api/net.md
index a7b6eff6008136..0bce91d9ff67b7 100644
--- a/doc/api/net.md
+++ b/doc/api/net.md
@@ -83,6 +83,11 @@ event is not emitted until all connections are ended.
 ### Event: `'connection'`
 <!-- YAML
 added: v0.1.90
+changes:
+ - version: REPLACEME
+   pr-url: https://github.com/nodejs/node/pull/32516
+   description: New connections are now closed instead of silently leaking them
+                when there are no `'connection'` listeners.
 -->
 
 * {net.Socket} The connection object
diff --git a/lib/net.js b/lib/net.js
index ee0ffebe0ec45e..c6c4433cf642e3 100644
--- a/lib/net.js
+++ b/lib/net.js
@@ -1536,6 +1536,11 @@ function onconnection(err, clientHandle) {
     return;
   }
 
+  if (self.listenerCount('connection') === 0) {
+    clientHandle.close();
+    return;
+  }
+
   if (self.maxConnections && self._connections >= self.maxConnections) {
     clientHandle.close();
     return;
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-net-server-no-handler.js b/test/parallel/test-net-server-no-handler.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..d27b19b7e3fd67
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-net-server-no-handler.js
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+// Ensure that a net.Server without 'connection' event listeners closes
+// incoming connections rather than accepting, then forgetting about them.
+
+'use strict';
+const common = require('../common');
+const net = require('net');
+
+net.createServer(common.mustCall()).listen(function() {
+  const server = this;
+  const { address: host, port } = server.address();
+  net.connect(port, host).once('end', () => server.close());
+});
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-net-socket-timeout.js b/test/parallel/test-net-socket-timeout.js
index 8b197b44d61281..6e1cd06af412f1 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-net-socket-timeout.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-net-socket-timeout.js
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ for (let i = 0; i < invalidCallbacks.length; i++) {
   );
 }
 
-const server = net.Server();
+const server = net.Server((conn) => { /* do nothing */ });
 server.listen(0, common.mustCall(() => {
   const socket = net.createConnection(server.address().port);
   socket.setTimeout(1, common.mustCall(() => {