CVE-2026-73508: Netty: Memory Leak in DNS Record Decoder via Malformed Domain Names

Description

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final, io.netty.handler.codec.dns.AbstractDnsRecord, io.netty.handler.codec.dns.DefaultDnsRecordDecoder.decodeRecord(), and io.netty.handler.codec.dns.DnsCodecUtil.decompressDomainName() failed to release retained or newly allocated ByteBuf objects when IDN.toASCII() or encodeDomainName() rejected a malformed domain name, allowing unauthenticated remote DNS packets to leak direct memory incrementally until denial of service. 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

< 4.1.136.Final; >= 4.2.0.Final, < 4.2.16.Final · source: vendor, NVD