High severity · published Jul 21, 2026
CVE-2026-55851
Netty codec-haproxy: Signed-Byte Sentinel Collision in HAProxyMessageDecoder Leads to Unbounded Memory Exhaustion
7.5
CVSS
0.6%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. In versions 4.2.0.Final up to (but not including) 4.2.16.Final, and 4.1.0.Final up to (but not including) 4.1.135, the `HAProxyMessageDecoder` in Netty's `codec-haproxy` module performs protocol version detection by reading the 13th byte as a signed Java `byte` and widening it to `int` without masking; a PROXY protocol v2 binary prefix followed by version byte `0xFF` sign-extends to `-1`, collides with the decoder's need-more-data sentinel, and causes `ByteToMessageDecoder` to accumulate inbound bytes in an unbounded `cumulation` buffer until direct memory is exhausted. This issue is fixed in versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.6% · higher than 50% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
NE
netty · netty
>= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.16.Final; >= 4.1.0.Final, < 4.1.136.Final · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-55851
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-55851
Patch
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/5b68c61f37aa4a3045cba624cbea239655c9003b
Patch
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/bb2ff68a1fb71cb4b0eb9a9e17b66c52aff680c6
Release Notes
https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.136.Final
Release Notes
https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.16.Final
Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-q6cq-mhr2-jmr5
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