CVE-2026-45416

Netty: SNI handler pre-allocates up to 16 MiB from nine attacker bytes

State
Published
Severity
7.5 High
Published
Jun 12, 2026
Updated
Sep 18, 2026
Reserved
May 12, 2026

Read the record on cve.org

Description

Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. Prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, SslClientHelloHandler.decode() reads the 24-bit TLS handshake length and, when the ClientHello does not fit in the first record, eagerly allocates `ctx.alloc().buffer(handshakeLength)` (line 161). The guard at line 140 is `handshakeLength > maxClientHelloLength && maxClientHelloLength != 0`, and the commonly-used SniHandler/AbstractSniHandler constructors (SniHandler(Mapping), SniHandler(AsyncMapping), AbstractSniHandler()) pass maxClientHelloLength=0 and handshakeTimeoutMillis=0, so the length guard is disabled and no timeout is scheduled. A 16 MiB request exceeds the default pooled chunk size and becomes a huge/unpooled allocation performed immediately. The buffer is retained in the handler until the channel closes. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.17.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HGitHub_M
3.17.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:Hredhat-SADP

Weaknesses

  • CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

Affected Products

ProductVersions
nettynetty
  • >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.15.FinalAffected
  • < 4.1.135.FinalAffected

References

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