Denial of Service attack on windows app using Netty
Summary
An unsafe reading of environment file could potentially cause a denial of service in Netty. When loaded on an Windows application, Netty attemps to load a file that does not exist. If an attacker creates such a large file, the Netty application crash.
Details
A similar issue was previously reported in https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xq3w-v528-46rv This issue was fixed, but the fix was incomplete in that null-bytes were not counted against the input limit.
PoC
The PoC is the same as for https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xq3w-v528-46rv with the detail that the file should only contain null-bytes; 0x00.
When the null-bytes are encountered by the InputStreamReader, it will issue replacement characters in its charset decoding, which will fill up the line-buffer in the BufferedReader.readLine(), because the replacement character is not a line-break character.
Impact
Impact is the same as https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xq3w-v528-46rv
Affected software
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| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | io.netty:netty-common | < 4.1.118.Final | 4.1.118.Final |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-400- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven)
- Package
io.netty:netty-common- Disclosed
- 10.02.2025
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 13:20
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-389x-839f-4rhx - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: io.netty:netty-common
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
- 2
- First → latest
- 11.2024 02.2025
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Medium 2
Disclosures per year
- 2024: 1
- 2025: 1
- 2026: 0
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Denial of Service attack on windows app using Netty this entry
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