Netty: [HttpContentEncoder] Unbounded Per-Connection Queue Growth via HTTP/1.1 Pipelining Leads to Denial of Service
Impact
HttpContentEncoder (the superclass of the production handler HttpContentCompressor) maintains a per-channel ArrayDeque<CharSequence> named acceptEncodingQueue that accumulates attacker-controlled data without any size limit. The queue is filled on the I/O thread for every inbound HTTP request and drained only when the application later writes a non-1xx response. This creates a resource exhaustion vulnerability when an attacker exploits HTTP/1.1 pipelining to flood the connection with requests faster than the application produces responses.
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | io.netty:netty-codec-http | >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.16.Final, < 4.1.136.Final | 4.2.16.Final, 4.1.136.Final |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-770- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven)
- Package
io.netty:netty-codec-http- Disclosed
- 22.07.2026
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 13:20
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-q4f6-jm68-57ww - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: io.netty:netty-codec-http
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.
- Total entries
- 24
- First → latest
- 02.2020 08.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 1
- High 6
- Medium 16
- Low 1
Disclosures per year
- 2020: 1
- 2021: 2
- 2022: 2
- 2023: 0
- 2024: 1
- 2025: 2
- 2026: 16
-
Netty: [HttpContentEncoder] Unbounded Per-Connection Queue Growth via HTTP/1.1 Pipelining Leads to Denial of Service this entry
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