Netty: HTTP/1.0 TE+CL Coexistence Bypasses Smuggling Sanitization
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-42581 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | GitHub_M |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-05-13 19:17:23 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-05-18 13:14:18 UTC |
| Description | Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final, HttpObjectDecoder strips a conflicting Content-Length header when a request carries both Transfer-Encoding: chunked and Content-Length, but only for HTTP/1.1 messages. The guard is absent for HTTP/1.0. An attacker that sends an HTTP/1.0 request with both headers causes Netty to decode the body as chunked while leaving Content-Length intact in the forwarded HttpMessage. Any downstream proxy or handler that trusts Content-Length over Transfer-Encoding will disagree on message boundaries, enabling request smuggling. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.8 CRITICAL from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS: 0.000170000 probability, percentile 0.045490000 (date 2026-05-25)
Problem Types: CWE-444 | CWE-444 CWE-444: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Primary | 9.8 | CRITICAL | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 5.8 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N |
| 3.1 | CNA | DECLARED | 5.8 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
HighIntegrity
HighAvailability
HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)
Vendor Declared Affected Products
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9 | 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0 | github.com | Exploit, Vendor Advisory, Mitigation |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.