CVE-2026-100661 PUBLISHED

Netty HTTP/3 QPACK Prefixed Integer DoS via Unbounded Accumulation

Assigner: VulnCheck
Reserved: 26.09.2026 Published: 26.09.2026 Updated: 26.09.2026

Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final contain a denial-of-service vulnerability in the QPACK prefixed-integer decoder (QpackUtil.decodePrefixedInteger), which does not bound the number of continuation bytes it will process. A remote, unauthenticated peer can open a QPACK unidirectional stream (type 0x02 encoder or 0x03 decoder) and send a first byte with all prefix bits set (e.g. 0xFF for a 7-bit prefix or 0x3F for a 5-bit prefix) followed by an endless run of 0x80 continuation bytes. The decoder returns -1 ('need more bytes'), so callers never consume the input, the ByteToMessageDecoder cumulator grows without bound, and each decode() invocation re-scans the whole accumulated buffer, yielding O(N^2) CPU cost. The result is unbounded per-connection heap growth (OutOfMemoryError) and event-loop CPU starvation, reachable in every configuration. Fixed in 4.2.18.Final.

Metrics

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
CVSS Score: 8.7

Product Status

Vendor netty
Product netty
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 4.2.0.Final to 4.2.18.Final (excl.)
  • Version 4.2.18.Final is unaffected

Credits

  • manus-use reporter

References

Problem Types

  • Uncontrolled Resource Consumption CWE