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High · 7.5 CVE-2026-100661 EUVD-2026-87755GHSA-7m86-g9j9-26xf

Netty HTTP/3 QPACK Prefixed Integer DoS via Unbounded Accumulation

Published Sep 26, 2026 · Updated Oct 2, 2026 · Assigned by VulnCheck

Description

Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final contain a denial-of-service vulnerability in the QPACK prefixed-integer decoder (QpackUtil.decodePrefixedInteger), which does not bound the number of continuation bytes it will process. A remote, unauthenticated peer can open a QPACK unidirectional stream (type 0x02 encoder or 0x03 decoder) and send a first byte with all prefix bits set (e.g. 0xFF for a 7-bit prefix or 0x3F for a 5-bit prefix) followed by an endless run of 0x80 continuation bytes. The decoder returns -1 ('need more bytes'), so callers never consume the input, the ByteToMessageDecoder cumulator grows without bound, and each decode() invocation re-scans the whole accumulated buffer, yielding O(N^2) CPU cost. The result is unbounded per-connection heap growth (OutOfMemoryError) and event-loop CPU starvation, reachable in every configuration. Fixed in 4.2.18.Final.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
netty netty 4.2.0.Final – < 4.2.18.Final 4.2.18.Final

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 netty No fix yet —
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS netty No fix yet —

Advisories 1

References