Vulnerability · Published Jun 12, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-48043netty-codec-http2: ByteBuf Reference-Count Leak in DelegatingDecompressorFrameListener Leads to Memory Exhaustion
Medium 5.3
In plain English
A medium-severity uncontrolled resource consumption in netty from netty. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.8% (higher than 55% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. In netty-codec-http2 prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, the `DelegatingDecompressorFrameListener` class orchestrates HTTP/2 decompression by embedding a per-stream `EmbeddedChannel` that runs the appropriate decompression codec (gzip, deflate, zstd) and forwards decompressed chunks to a wrapped listener. Each decompressed chunk is a pooled `ByteBuf` handed to an anonymous `ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter` tail handler, which becomes the sole owner responsible for releasing it. A remote peer could send frames that would result in the flow-controller throwing and so trigger a resource leak which at the end might take down the whole JVM due OOME. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | netty | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48043 |
| Debian:13 | netty | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48043 |
| Debian:14 | netty | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-48043 |
| Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http2 | 4.2.15.Final | GHSA-c2gf-v879-257j |
| Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http2 | 4.1.135.Final | GHSA-c2gf-v879-257j |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | netty | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-48043 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | netty | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-48043 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-400, CWE-401, CWE-772 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
References
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-c2gf-v879-257j x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.135.Final x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.15.Final x_refsource_MISC
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-48043 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2488442 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-48043.json x_sadp-csaf-vex
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:53644 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:53645 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:48151 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:53646 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:66488 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:26586 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:41951 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:50085 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:65126 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:48124 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:36820 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:37390 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:26018 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:26017 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:34608 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54435 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT