Description
In Eclipse Jetty, versions 9.4.27.v20200227 to 9.4.29.v20200521, in case of too large response headers, Jetty throws an exception to produce an HTTP 431 error. When this happens, the ByteBuffer containing the HTTP response headers is released back to the ByteBufferPool twice. Because of this double release, two threads can acquire the same ByteBuffer from the pool and while thread1 is about to use the ByteBuffer to write response1 data, thread2 fills the ByteBuffer with other data. Thread1 then proceeds to write the buffer that now contains different data. This results in client1, which issued request1 seeing data from another request or response which could contain sensitive data belonging to client2 (HTTP session ids, authentication credentials, etc.). If the Jetty version cannot be upgraded, the vulnerability can be significantly reduced by configuring a responseHeaderSize significantly larger than the requestHeaderSize (12KB responseHeaderSize and 8KB requestHeaderSize).
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Eclipse Foundation | Eclipse Jetty | 9.4.27.v20200227 to 9.4.29.v20200521 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | jetty9 | 9.4.31-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | jetty9 | 9.4.31-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | jetty9 | 9.4.31-1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift 4 | jenkins | 2.235.5.1600414805-1.el7 | RHSA-2020:3841, RHSA-2020:3808 |
| Red Hat OpenShift 4 | openshift +1 | 4.3.37-202009120213.p0.git.0.dffefe4.el8 | RHSA-2020:3808 |
| Red Hat OpenShift 3 | jenkins | 2.235.5.1600415953-1.el7 | RHSA-2020:4223 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
GitHub 1 repository
-
forse01/CVE-2019-17638-Jetty ★ 1 · Feb 4, 2021
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server | >= 9.4.27, < 9.4.30.v20200611 | 9.4.30.v20200611 | GHSA-x3rh-m7vp-35f2 |
Advisories 3
- RHSA-2020:3808 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.3.38 jenkins and openshift security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Aug 8, 2026
- RHSA-2020:4223 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 3.11.306 jenkins security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Aug 5, 2026
- RHSA-2020:3841 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.5.13 jenkins security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Aug 5, 2026
References
- https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=564984
- [oss-security] 20200817 Vulnerability in Jenkins mailing-list
- FEDORA-2020-cf8ef2f333 vendor-advisory
- [pulsar-commits] 20200903 [GitHub] [pulsar] guyv opened a new issue #7970: pulsar-client vulnerability CVE-2019-17638 mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200911 [GitHub] [pulsar] codelipenghui closed issue #7970: pulsar-client vulnerability CVE-2019-17638 mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200912 [GitHub] [pulsar] codelipenghui closed issue #7970: pulsar-client vulnerability CVE-2019-17638 mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200914 [GitHub] [pulsar] klwilson227 opened a new issue #8060: CVE-2019-17638 jetty server mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200922 [GitHub] [pulsar] zymap commented on issue #8060: CVE-2019-17638 jetty server mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200923 [GitHub] [pulsar] zymap commented on issue #8060: CVE-2019-17638 jetty server mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200929 [GitHub] [pulsar] sijie closed issue #8060: CVE-2019-17638 jetty server mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20200929 [GitHub] [pulsar] sijie commented on issue #8060: CVE-2019-17638 jetty server mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20201005 [GitHub] [pulsar] abhishekheaven7 opened a new issue #8203: Pulsar client with version 2.6.1 has critical vulnerability CVE-2019-17638 mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20201005 [GitHub] [pulsar] abhishekheaven7 closed issue #8203: Pulsar client with version 2.6.1 has critical vulnerability CVE-2019-17638 mailing-list
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2020.html
- [pulsar-commits] 20201215 [GitHub] [pulsar] yanshuchong opened a new issue #8967: CVSS issue list mailing-list
- [pulsar-commits] 20210127 [GitHub] [pulsar] GLouMcK opened a new issue #9347: Security Vulnerabilities - Black Duck Scan mailing-list
- https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuApr2021.html