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OpenAdvisories
Medium · 5.9 CVE-2026-85718 EUVD-2026-81908

AsyncHttpClient: Connection permit leak on TLS handshake failure causes per-host denial of service

Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 17, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

The AsyncHttpClient (AHC) library allows Java applications to easily execute HTTP requests and asynchronously process HTTP responses. From 3.0.8 until 3.0.12, a client with maxConnections or maxConnectionsPerHost set above zero leaks one connection permit whenever TLS connection establishment fails before the handshake completes. NettyConnectListener removes the partitionKeyLock permit from NettyResponseFuture before every failure path is bound to the channel closeFuture, so an abort can leave the permit unreleased. Repeated failures can permanently lock out one host under a per-host limit or drain the shared pool under a global limit, blocking later requests even when no connection remains open. The default unlimited connection setting is not affected. This issue is fixed in version 3.0.12.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
AsyncHttpClient async-http-client >= 3.0.8, < 3.0.12 —

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 async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS async-http-client No fix yet —

References