CVE-2026-50020CWE-444

Netty's HttpObjectDecoder skips arbitrary initial control characters when only initial CRLF characters are permitted

Medium · published June 12, 2026

CVSS v3.1
5.3
EPSS
0%
Percentile
32.9
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. Prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, before reading the first request-line, `HttpObjectDecoder` skips every byte for which `Character.isISOControl(b)` is `true` (0x00–0x1F and 0x7F) as well as all whitespace. RFC 9112 §2.2 only asks servers to ignore empty CRLF lines preceding the request-line — a carefully scoped robustness allowance intended to handle HTTP/1.0 POST workarounds. Silently absorbing NUL bytes, SOH, STX, and other non-CRLF control characters goes significantly beyond this, and can be exploited for request-boundary confusion in pipelined or multiplexed transports where a front-end component treats those bytes differently. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.3 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00398 · 32.9th percentile
Weakness
CWE-444 · Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests ('HTTP Request/Response Smuggling')
Published
2026-06-12T14:55Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 12 JUN 14:55Z
    Netty's HttpObjectDecoder skips arbitrary initial control characters when only initial CRLF characters are permitted
    cvelistv5