GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven
GHSA-6ghj-frrj-jjj3 Netty has Unbounded Direct Memory Consumption in its RedisDecoder
HIGH
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-44890
- Ecosystem
- Maven
- Packages
- io.netty:netty-codec-redis
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-400
- Reviewed
- 2026-06-08
Affected packages
• Maven io.netty:netty-codec-redis: >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.15.Final → fixed in 4.2.15.Final
• Maven io.netty:netty-codec-redis: < 4.1.135.Final → fixed in 4.1.135.Final
Description
Summary
An attacker can cause DoS by sending crafted Redis payloads across multiple connections without `\r\n`. This exhausts the server's direct memory pool (OutOfDirectMemoryError), preventing legitimate connections from being processed.
Details
io.netty.handler.codec.redis.RedisDecoder decodes the length of bulk strings and array headers using the `decodeLength` method. This method reads bytes from the network until it encounters a `\n` character. However, it does not enforce any maximum length check while buffering the bytes if the `\n` character is not found. An attacker can exploit this by sending a continuous stream of digits (e.g., `$1111...`) without ever sending a `\n`.
To cause a true Denial of Service, an attacker must open multiple concurrent connections and distribute the unbounded payloads among them.
According to the RESP specification (https://redis.io/docs/latest/develop/reference/protocol-spec/), all parts of the protocol are strictly terminated with `\r\n`. Furthermore, the length prefix itself is an integer representation that must fit within standard numeric limits (e.g., a 64-bit signed integer). Therefore, a stream of digits exceeding these bounds without `\r\n` is a protocol violation and should be rejected immediately rather than buffered indefinitely.
Impact
Denial of Service due to memory exhaustion. Any application using Netty's RedisDecoder to handle untrusted Redis traffic is vulnerable.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-44890 Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption weakness
References
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-6ghj-frrj-jjj3 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44890 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