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Description

Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. NoQuicTokenHandler is the tokenHandler used when the application does not set one. Prior to version 4.2.15.Final, its writeToken() returns false (server will not send Retry — acceptable), but validateToken() unconditionally `return 0`. In QuicheQuicServerCodec.handlePacket(), a non-negative return from validateToken() is interpreted as 'token is valid, ODCID starts at offset 0', causing the server to call quiche_accept as if the client's address had been validated by a Retry round-trip. Per RFC 9000 §8.1, a validated address lifts the 3× anti-amplification send limit. Thus any attacker who includes ANY non-empty token bytes in an Initial packet — with a spoofed victim source IP — causes the Netty server to treat the victim as validated and reflect full-size handshake flights (certificates, etc.) toward it without the 3× cap. The correct 'no token handler' semantics would be to return -1 (invalid) so the normal un-validated path and amplification limit apply. Version 4.2.15.Final patches the issue.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
netty netty >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.15.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
Debian 14 netty No fix yet —
Debian 13 netty No fix yet —
Debian 12 netty No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 netty No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 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 —

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling apache-nifi 2.9.0-r14 —
Wolfi rolling opensearch-3 +2 3.6.0-r7 —
Wolfi rolling opensearch-3-discovery-ec2 +2 3.8.0-r3 —
Wolfi rolling spark-4.1-scala-2.13 4.1.2-r4 —
Wolfi rolling trino +4 483-r7 —
Wolfi rolling trino-plugin-hive +8 481-r7 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
Maven io.netty:netty-codec-classes-quic >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.15.Final 4.2.15.Final GHSA-cmm3-54f8-px4j

Advisories 1

References