CVE-2026-56819 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in io.netty:netty-codec-http2. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2026-56819 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Netty: HTTP/2 decompression leaks ByteBuf reference count when the decompressor channel is already closed (Direct memory leak / OOM DoS)
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-2026-56819.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-56819 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 367,996 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
io.netty:netty-codec-http2☕io.netty:netty-codec-http2Real-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
Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. In versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.15.Final and 4.1.0.Final through 4.1.135.Final, a remote unauthenticated peer can leak one direct ByteBuf per HTTP/2 DATA frame in applications that enable HTTP/2 content decompression via DelegatingDecompressorFrameListener. When a DATA frame is processed for a stream whose decompressor has already been closed, Http2Decompressor.decompress(...) calls decompressor.writeInbound(data.retain()) and does not release the retained buffer on the error path, eventually exhausting direct memory and crashing the JVM. This issue is fixed in versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http2 | ≥ 4.2.0&&< 4.2.16.Final | 4.2.16.Final |
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http2 | ≥ 4.1.0.Final&&< 4.1.136.Final | 4.1.136.Final |
Detection & 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-http2. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update io.netty:netty-codec-http2 to 4.2.16.Final or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-56819 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2026-56819 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2026-56819. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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 is an Important vulnerability in Netty's HTTP/2 codec, which could lead to a denial of service. Red Hat products utilizing netty-codec-http2 with HTTP/2 content decompression enabled are susceptible to memory exhaustion when processing specially crafted HTTP/2 DATA frames. This allows a remote attacker to leak…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-56819 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2026-56819 across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.