Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.1.137.Final and 4.2.17.Final, the default io.netty.handler.ssl.SniHandler constructors use the pre-handshake ClientHello aggregation path in handler/src/main/java/io/netty/handler/ssl/SslClientHelloHandler.java at io.netty.handler.ssl.SslClientHelloHandler#decode, where handshakeBuffer.clear() and writeBytes() recopy all previously received body bytes for every additional TLS record. An unauthenticated remote peer can advertise a large ClientHello and deliver its body in thousands of tiny records, causing quadratic CPU work on the event loop before the TLS handshake completes and degrading TLS handling for other clients. This issue is fixed in versions 4.1.137.Final and 4.2.17.Final.
Fix
Patch, vendor advisory and mitigation references on NVD 5
- https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/1b5abc6443b63726c72cdd285af2feb7ddbb8ff7 Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/9e0519239108a69b7e9bbc5e9182ee139a0d7961 Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17213 Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17217 Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-fccg-mwvh-qqg4 Vendor Advisory
Every line above is quoted from NVD, CISA, Microsoft, the vendor's own advisory or DISA; nothing is generated.
Change history 1
- First seenCVSS 8.7 · nettyNVD modified 2026-10-26 10:10
Affected (CPE criteria) 1
cpe:2.3:a:netty:netty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
References 7
- https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/1b5abc6443b63726c72cdd285af2feb7ddbb8ff7 Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/9e0519239108a69b7e9bbc5e9182ee139a0d7961 Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17213 Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17217 Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.137.Final Release Notes
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.17.Final Release Notes
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-fccg-mwvh-qqg4 Vendor Advisory