All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-100662GHSA-f64r-x647-cg8w

Netty HTTP/3 QPACK encoder-stream unbounded memory exhaustion DoS

netty nettyFrameworks
CVSS
8.7High
ExploitationPublic exploit codeCISA's assessment says proof of concept code is public, assessed 30 Sep 2026. Not in the KEV catalogCISA via CVE List
Exploit odds (EPSS)0.34%Chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days, higher than 26% of CVEs. Scored 23 Oct 2026FIRST EPSS
Fixed in4.2.18.FinalFixed versionCVE List
Published26 Sep 2026Updated 30 Sep 2026CVE List

What fixes it

  • 4.2.18.FinalnettyCVE List
  • 4.2.18.Finalio.netty:netty-codec-http3, mavenGitHub<dependency><groupId>io.netty</groupId><artifactId>netty-codec-http3</artifactId><version>4.2.18.Final</version></dependency>

A fixed version on one release line is not the upgrade target for every line. Check your exact version and any vendor backports.

Description

Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final contain an uncontrolled resource consumption vulnerability in the QPACK encoder-stream instruction decoder (QpackEncoderHandler, installed on the peer-initiated unidirectional QPACK encoder stream, type 0x02). The handler accepts an attacker-declared string-literal length of up to Integer.MAX_VALUE (~2 GiB) for the Name Length and Value Length fields of the "Insert With Literal Name" instruction (RFC 9204 §4.3.3), with no per-instruction or per-literal length cap and no cumulation-size limit; the existing HTTP/3 limits (maxHeaderListSize, maxUnknownFramePayloadLength, DEFAULT_MAX_FIELD_SECTION_SIZE) are not applied to this handler. A remote, unauthenticated peer with an established HTTP/3 connection to a default Netty HTTP/3 server can declare a very large literal length and then trickle fewer bytes than declared, causing the ByteToMessageDecoder MERGE cumulator to retain and grow the per-connection buffer, and ultimately triggering a large byte-array allocation. This leads to unbounded per-connection heap growth and OutOfMemoryError, resulting in denial of service. Fixed in 4.2.18.Final.

Text from CVE List

Affected versions 3

  • nettyaffected: 4.2.0.Final before 4.2.18.FinalCVE List
  • nettyunaffected: 4.2.18.FinalCVE List
  • io.netty:netty-codec-http3, maven>=4.2.0.Final, <= 4.2.17.FinalGitHub

References 2