CVE-2026-42581

Description

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final, HttpObjectDecoder strips a conflicting Content-Length header when a request carries both Transfer-Encoding: chunked and Content-Length, but only for HTTP/1.1 messages. The guard is absent for HTTP/1.0. An attacker that sends an HTTP/1.0 request with both headers causes Netty to decode the body as chunked while leaving Content-Length intact in the forwarded HttpMessage. Any downstream proxy or handler that trusts Content-Length over Transfer-Encoding will disagree on message boundaries, enabling request smuggling. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final.

CVSS v3.1 Score

5.8

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0002

Probability of exploitation

0.05%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-444 CWE-444

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
netty	netty	< 4.1.133
netty	netty	4.2.0 — 4.2.13

References

Advisories & Patches

https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9 https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9

Exploits

https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9 https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-42581? +

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final, HttpObjectDecoder strips a conflicting Content-Length header when a request carries both Transfer-Encoding: chunked and Content-Length, but only for HTTP/1.1 messages. The guard is absent for HTTP/1.0. An attacker that sends an HTTP/1.0 request with both headers causes Netty to decode the body as chunked while leaving Content-Length intact in the forwarded HttpMessage. Any downstream proxy or handler that trusts Content-Length over Transfer-Encoding will disagree on message boundaries, enabling request smuggling. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 5.8 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2026-42581? +

CVE-2026-42581 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 5.8 out of 10, rated MEDIUM. This is a medium-severity vulnerability that should be remediated as part of regular maintenance. The EPSS score is 0.0002, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

What products are affected by CVE-2026-42581? +

CVE-2026-42581 affects products from netty, specifically: netty. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-42581? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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