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High

Jetty vulnerable to incorrect handling of invalid large TLS frame, exhausting CPU resources

  • Disclosed: 06.04.2021
  • Updated: 11.10.2026 12:22

Impact

When using SSL/TLS with Jetty, either with HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, or WebSocket, the server may receive an invalid large (greater than 17408) TLS frame that is incorrectly handled, causing CPU resources to eventually reach 100% usage.

Workarounds

The problem can be worked around by compiling the following class:

java
package org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngineResult;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLException;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;

import org.eclipse.jetty.io.EndPoint;
import org.eclipse.jetty.io.ssl.SslConnection;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Connector;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactory;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.BufferUtil;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.annotation.Name;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.ssl.SslContextFactory;

public class SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory extends SslConnectionFactory
{
    public SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory(@Name("sslContextFactory") SslContextFactory factory, @Name("next") String nextProtocol)
    {
        super(factory, nextProtocol);
    }

    @Override
    protected SslConnection newSslConnection(Connector connector, EndPoint endPoint, SSLEngine engine)
    {
        return new SslConnection(connector.getByteBufferPool(), connector.getExecutor(), endPoint, engine, isDirectBuffersForEncryption(), isDirectBuffersForDecryption())
        {
            @Override
            protected SSLEngineResult unwrap(SSLEngine sslEngine, ByteBuffer input, ByteBuffer output) throws SSLException
            {
                SSLEngineResult results = super.unwrap(sslEngine, input, output);

                if ((results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.BUFFER_UNDERFLOW ||
                    results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.OK && results.bytesConsumed() == 0 && results.bytesProduced() == 0) &&
                    BufferUtil.space(input) == 0)
                {
                    BufferUtil.clear(input);
                    throw new SSLHandshakeException("Encrypted buffer max length exceeded");
                }
                return results;
            }
        };
    }
}

This class can be deployed by:

  • The resulting class file should be put into a jar file (eg sslfix6072.jar)
  • The jar file should be made available to the server. For a normal distribution this can be done by putting the file into ${jetty.base}/lib
  • Copy the file ${jetty.home}/modules/ssl.mod to ${jetty.base}/modules
  • Edit the ${jetty.base}/modules/ssl.mod file to have the following section:
[lib]
lib/sslfix6072.jar
  • Copy the file ${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-https.xml and${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-http2.xml to ${jetty.base}/etc
  • Edit files ${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-https.xml and ${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-http2.xml, changing any reference of org.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactory to org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory. For example:
xml
  <Call name="addIfAbsentConnectionFactory">
    <Arg>
      <New class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory">
        <Arg name="next">http/1.1</Arg>
        <Arg name="sslContextFactory"><Ref refid="sslContextFactory"/></Arg>
      </New>
    </Arg>
  </Call>
  • Restart Jetty

Affected software

Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.

PlatformPackageVulnerable versionsFixed in
Java / Kotlin (Maven) org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server >= 7.2.2, < 9.4.39, >= 10.0.0, < 10.0.2, >= 11.0.0, < 11.0.2 9.4.39, 10.0.2, 11.0.2

References

CVSS score 7.5/10
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400, CWE-551, CWE-755
Platform
Java / Kotlin (Maven)
Package
org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server
Disclosed
06.04.2021
Updated
11.10.2026 12:22

Sources and licenses

OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w - CC BY 4.0

Vulnerability history: org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server

All published vulnerabilities of this package (Java / Kotlin (Maven)), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.

All (29) in the archive
Total entries
29
First → latest
10.2018 07.2026
Without a fix
0
Exploited in attacks
0

Severity breakdown

  • Critical 4
  • High 10
  • Medium 13
  • Low 2

Disclosures per year

Severity:
  1. Eclipse Jetty: DoS attack triggering OutOfMemory with 100-Continue requests
    High · 7.5 CVE-2024-7708 >= 10.0.7, < 10.0.23, >= 11.0.7, < 11.0.23 10.0.23, 11.0.23
  2. The Eclipse Jetty Server Artifact has a Gzip request memory leak
    High · 7.5 CVE-2026-1605 >= 12.1.0, < 12.1.6, >= 12.0.0, < 12.0.32 12.1.6, 12.0.32
  3. **UNSUPPORTED WHEN ASSIGNED** GzipHandler causes part of request body to be seen as request body of a separate request
    High · 7.2 CVE-2024-13009 >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.57.v20241219 9.4.57.v20241219
  4. Jetty SslConnection does not release pooled ByteBuffers in case of errors
    High · 7.5 CVE-2022-2191 >= 10.0.0, < 10.0.10, >= 11.0.0, < 11.0.10 10.0.10, 11.0.10
  5. Jetty vulnerable to incorrect handling of invalid large TLS frame, exhausting CPU resources this entry
    High · 7.5 CVE-2021-28165 >= 7.2.2, < 9.4.39, >= 10.0.0, < 10.0.2, >= 11.0.0, < 11.0.2 9.4.39, 10.0.2, 11.0.2
  6. Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release in Jetty Server
    Critical · 9.4 CVE-2019-17638 >= 9.4.27, < 9.4.30.v20200611 9.4.30.v20200611
  7. Uncontrolled Resource Consumption in org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server
    High · 7.5 CVE-2018-12545 >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.12.v20180830, >= 9.3.0, < 9.3.25.v20180904 9.4.12.v20180830, 9.3.25.v20180904
  8. Jetty vulnerable to exposure of sensitive information to unauthenticated remote users
    High · 7.5 CVE-2015-2080 < 9.2.9.v20150224 9.2.9.v20150224
  9. Jetty vulnerable to authorization bypass due to inconsistent HTTP request handling (HTTP Request Smuggling)
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2017-7658 < 9.2.25.v20180606, >= 9.3.0, < 9.3.24.v20180605, >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.11.v20180605 9.2.25.v20180606, 9.3.24.v20180605, 9.4.11.v20180605
  10. Jetty vulnerable to cache poisoning due to inconsistent HTTP request handling (HTTP Request Smuggling)
    High · 7.5 CVE-2017-7656 < 9.3.24.v20180605, >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.11.v20180605 9.3.24.v20180605, 9.4.11.v20180605
  11. Jetty contains an alias issue that could allow unauthenticated remote code execution due to specially crafted request
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2016-4800 >= 9.3.0, < 9.3.9 9.3.9
  12. Jetty vulnerable to exposure of sensitive information due to observable discrepancy
    High · 7.5 CVE-2017-9735 >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.6.v20170531, >= 9.3.0, < 9.3.20.v20170531, < 9.2.22.v20170606 9.4.6.v20170531, 9.3.20.v20170531, 9.2.22.v20170606
  13. Critical severity vulnerability that affects org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server
    Critical · 9.8 CVE-2017-7657 < 9.2.25.v20180606, >= 9.3.0, < 9.3.24.v20180605 9.2.25.v20180606, 9.3.24.v20180605
  14. Access and integrity issue within Eclipse Jetty
    High · 8.8 CVE-2018-12538 >= 9.4.0, < 9.4.11.v20180605 9.4.11.v20180605

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