GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Maven

GHSA-q6cq-mhr2-jmr5 Netty: [codec-haproxy] Signed-Byte Sentinel Collision in HAProxyMessageDecoder Leads to Unbounded Memory Exhaustion

HIGH Published 2026-07-22 Modified 2026-07-22 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2026-55851
Ecosystem
Maven
Packages
io.netty:netty-codec-haproxy
Severity
High
CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weaknesses
CWE-400
Reviewed
2026-07-22

Affected packages

• Maven io.netty:netty-codec-haproxy: >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.16.Final → fixed in 4.2.16.Final • Maven io.netty:netty-codec-haproxy: >= 4.1.0.Final, < 4.1.136.Final → fixed in 4.1.136.Final

Description

The `HAProxyMessageDecoder` in netty's `codec-haproxy` module performs protocol version detection by reading the 13th byte of the inbound stream as a signed Java `byte` and widening it to `int` without masking. When an attacker sends a PROXY protocol v2 binary prefix (`0D 0A 0D 0A 00 0D 0A 51 55 49 54 0A`) followed by version byte `0xFF`, the sign extension produces `-1`, which collides with the decoder's "need more data" sentinel value. This collision traps the decoder in a version-detection loop where it perpetually requests more data without consuming any bytes, never instantiates the `HeaderExtractor` that enforces header size limits, and causes `ByteToMessageDecoder` to accumulate all subsequent inbound bytes into an unbounded `cumulation` buffer until the JVM exhausts its direct memory allocation.

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2026-55851 Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-400 Uncontrolled Resource Consumption weakness

References