GHSA-x4gw-5cx5-pgmh
Netty: SNI handler pre-allocates up to 16 MiB from nine attacker bytes
Quick fix
GHSA-x4gw-5cx5-pgmh — io.netty:netty-handler: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
# pom.xml: bump <version>4.2.15.Final</version> for io.netty:netty-handlerDetails
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.
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Affected packages
4.2.0.FinalFixed in: 4.2.15.Final# pom.xml: bump <version>4.2.15.Final</version> for io.netty:netty-handler0Fixed in: 4.1.135.Final# pom.xml: bump <version>4.1.135.Final</version> for io.netty:netty-handlerReferences
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-x4gw-5cx5-pgmh[WEB]
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-45416[ADVISORY]
- https://github.com/netty/netty[PACKAGE]
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.135.Final[WEB]
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.15.Final[WEB]