Jetty vulnerable to incorrect handling of invalid large TLS frame, exhausting CPU resourcesGHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w
HIGHGHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Uncontrolled Resource Consumption vulnerability in org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w.
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
org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server☕org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server☕org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-serverReal-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
Impact
When using SSL/TLS with Jetty, either with HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, or WebSocket, the server may receive an invalid large (greater than 17408) TLS frame that is incorrectly handled, causing CPU resources to eventually reach 100% usage.
Workarounds
The problem can be worked around by compiling the following class:
package org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngineResult;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLException;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;
import org.eclipse.jetty.io.EndPoint;
import org.eclipse.jetty.io.ssl.SslConnection;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Connector;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactory;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.BufferUtil;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.annotation.Name;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.ssl.SslContextFactory;
public class SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory extends SslConnectionFactory
{
public SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory(@Name("sslContextFactory") SslContextFactory factory, @Name("next") String nextProtocol)
{
super(factory, nextProtocol);
}
@Override
protected SslConnection newSslConnection(Connector connector, EndPoint endPoint, SSLEngine engine)
{
return new SslConnection(connector.getByteBufferPool(), connector.getExecutor(), endPoint, engine, isDirectBuffersForEncryption(), isDirectBuffersForDecryption())
{
@Override
protected SSLEngineResult unwrap(SSLEngine sslEngine, ByteBuffer input, ByteBuffer output) throws SSLException
{
SSLEngineResult results = super.unwrap(sslEngine, input, output);
if ((results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.BUFFER_UNDERFLOW ||
results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.OK && results.bytesConsumed() == 0 && results.bytesProduced() == 0) &&
BufferUtil.space(input) == 0)
{
BufferUtil.clear(input);
throw new SSLHandshakeException("Encrypted buffer max length exceeded");
}
return results;
}
};
}
}
This class can be deployed by:
- The resulting class file should be put into a jar file (eg sslfix6072.jar)
- The jar file should be made available to the server. For a normal distribution this can be done by putting the file into ${jetty.base}/lib
- Copy the file
${jetty.home}/modules/ssl.modto${jetty.base}/modules - Edit the
${jetty.base}/modules/ssl.modfile to have the following section:
[lib]
lib/sslfix6072.jar
- Copy the file
${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-https.xmland${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-http2.xmlto${jetty.base}/etc - Edit files
${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-https.xmland${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-http2.xml, changing any reference oforg.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactorytoorg.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory. For example:
<Call name="addIfAbsentConnectionFactory">
<Arg>
<New class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory">
<Arg name="next">http/1.1</Arg>
<Arg name="sslContextFactory"><Ref refid="sslContextFactory"/></Arg>
</New>
</Arg>
</Call>
- Restart Jetty
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server | ≥ 7.2.2&&< 9.4.39 | 9.4.39org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server:9.4.39 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server | ≥ 10.0.0&&< 10.0.2 | 10.0.2org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server:10.0.2 |
| ☕Maven | org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server | ≥ 11.0.0&&< 11.0.2 | 11.0.2org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server:11.0.2 |
Affected Products
jettyeclipsejenkinsjenkinscloud managernetappe-series performance analyzernetappe-series santricity os controllernetappe-series santricity storagenetappResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update org.eclipse.jetty:jetty-server to 9.4.39 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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.
In OpenShift Container Platform (OCP), the hive/presto/hadoop components that comprise the OCP metering stack, ship the vulnerable version of jetty. Since the release of OCP 4.6, the metering product has been deprecated [1], hence the affected components are marked as wontfix. This may be fixed in the future. [1]…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat AMQ 7.8.2 | jetty-server | RHSA-2021:2689 |
| Red Hat AMQ 7.9.0 | see advisory | RHSA-2021:3700 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 1.6.4 | see advisory | RHSA-2021:1560 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 1.8.0 | jetty-server | RHSA-2021:3225 |
| Red Hat Developer Tools | rh-eclipse-jetty-0:9.4.40-1.1.el7_9 | RHSA-2021:1509 |
| Red Hat Fuse 7.9 | jetty | RHSA-2021:3140 |
| Red Hat Integration Camel Quarkus 2 | see advisory | RHSA-2021:4767 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.7 | jenkins-0:2.277.3.1620393611-1.el8 | RHSA-2021:1551 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.