Netty HttpContentEncoder: Unbounded Per-Connection Queue Growth via HTTP/1.1 Pipelining Leads to Denial of Service

Summary

CVECVE-2026-59899
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-07-29 18:16:56 UTC
Updated2026-07-29 18:16:56 UTC
DescriptionNetty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final, `HttpContentEncoder` (the superclass of the production handler `HttpContentCompressor`) maintains a per-channel `ArrayDeque<CharSequence>` named `acceptEncodingQueue` that accumulates attacker-controlled data without any size limit. The queue is filled on the I/O thread for every inbound HTTP request and drained only when the application later writes a non-1xx response. This creates a resource exhaustion vulnerability when an attacker exploits HTTP/1.1 pipelining to flood the connection with requests faster than the application produces responses. This issue has been fixed in versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v4.0 6.9 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Problem Types: CWE-770 | CWE-770 CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
4.0[email protected]Secondary6.9MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/C...
4.0CNADECLARED6.9MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS v4.0 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Attack Requirements
None
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low
Sub Conf.
None
Sub Integrity
None
Sub Availability
None

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Netty Netty affected >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.16.Final Not specified
CNA Netty Netty affected < 4.1.136.Final Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-q4f6-jm68-57ww [email protected] github.com
github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.136.Final [email protected] github.com
github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.16.Final [email protected] github.com
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NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

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