CVE-2021-21295
Netty is an open-source, asynchronous event-driven network application framework for rapid development of maintainable high performance protocol servers & clients. In Netty (io.netty:netty-codec-http2) before version 4.1.60.Final there is a vulnerability that enables request smuggling. If a Content-Length header is present in the original HTTP/2 request, the field is not validated by `Http2MultiplexHandler` as it is propagated up. This is fine as long as the request is not proxied through as HTTP/1.1. If the request comes in as an HTTP/2 stream, gets converted into the HTTP/1.1 domain objects (`HttpRequest`, `HttpContent`, etc.) via `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec `and then sent up to the child channel's pipeline and proxied through a remote peer as HTTP/1.1 this may result in request smuggling. In a proxy case, users may assume the content-length is validated somehow, which is not the case. If the request is forwarded to a backend channel that is a HTTP/1.1 connection, the Content-Length now has meaning and needs to be checked. An attacker can smuggle requests inside the body as it gets downgraded from HTTP/2 to HTTP/1.1. For an example attack refer to the linked GitHub Advisory. Users are only affected if all of this is true: `HTTP2MultiplexCodec` or `Http2FrameCodec` is used, `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec` is used to convert to HTTP/1.1 objects, and these HTTP/1.1 objects are forwarded to another remote peer. This has been patched in 4.1.60.Final As a workaround, the user can do the validation by themselves by implementing a custom `ChannelInboundHandler` that is put in the `ChannelPipeline` behind `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec`.
- CVSS 3.1
- 5.9
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N - EPSS
- 19% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days; higher than 97% of CVEs (scores of 2026-10-25)
- CWE
- CWE-444
- Published
- Modified
- Record from
- the NVD, synced
Affected
- apache:kudu
- apache:zookeeper
- debian:debian_linux
- netapp:oncommand_api_services
- netapp:oncommand_workflow_automation
- netty:netty
- oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_policy
- quarkus:quarkus
Packages (OSV)
| Advisory | Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj | Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http2 | >=4.0.0 <4.1.60.Final | 4.1.60.Final |
| GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj | Maven | org.jboss.netty:netty | all versions | no fix published |
| GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj | Maven | io.netty:netty | all versions | no fix published |
References
- https://github.com/Netflix/zuul/pull/980
- https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/89c241e3b1795ff257af4ad6eadc616cb2fb3dc4
- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r02e467123d45006a1dda20a38349e9c74c3a4b53e2e07be0939ecb3f%40%3Cdev.ranger.apache.org%3E
- https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r040a5e4d9cca2f98354b58a70b27099672276f66995c4e2e39545d0b%40%3Cissues.hbase.apache.org%3E