Description
Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final contain an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the QPACK encoder-stream instruction decoder (QpackEncoderHandler, installed on the peer-initiated unidirectional QPACK encoder stream, type 0x02). The handler accepts an attacker-declared string-literal length of up to Integer.MAX_VALUE (~2 GiB) for the Name Length and Value Length fields of the "Insert With Literal Name" instruction (RFC 9204 §4.3.3), with no per-instruction or per-literal length cap and no cumulation-size limit; the existing HTTP/3 limits (maxHeaderListSize, maxUnknownFramePayloadLength, DEFAULT_MAX_FIELD_SECTION_SIZE) are not applied to this handler. A remote, unauthenticated peer with an established HTTP/3 connection to a default Netty HTTP/3 server can declare a very large literal length and then trickle fewer bytes than declared, causing the ByteToMessageDecoder MERGE cumulator to retain and grow the per-connection buffer, and ultimately triggering a large byte-array allocation. This leads to unbounded per-connection heap growth and OutOfMemoryError, resulting in denial of service. Fixed in 4.2.18.Final.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | netty | No fix yet | — |
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
- WID-SEC-2026-3291 Netty: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 8, 2026
References
- GitHub Security Advisory (GHSA-f64r-x647-cg8w) vendor-advisory
- VulnCheck Advisory: Netty HTTP/3 QPACK encoder-stream unbounded memory exhaustion DoS third-party-advisory