GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) 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's HttpPostRequestDecoder can OOM
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 GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v.
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
GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v 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 378,567 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-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 HttpPostRequestDecoder can be tricked to accumulate data. I have spotted currently two attack vectors
Details
- While the decoder can store items on the disk if configured so, there are no limits to the number of fields the form can have, an attacher can send a chunked post consisting of many small fields that will be accumulated in the
bodyListHttpDatalist. - The decoder cumulates bytes in the
undecodedChunkbuffer until it can decode a field, this field can cumulate data without limits
PoC
Here is a Netty branch that provides a fix + tests : https://github.com/vietj/netty/tree/post-request-decoder
Here is a reproducer with Vert.x (which uses this decoder) https://gist.github.com/vietj/f558b8ea81ec6505f1e9a6ca283c9ae3
Impact
Any Netty based HTTP server that uses the HttpPostRequestDecoder to decode a form.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-codec-http | all versions | 4.1.108.Finalio.netty:netty-codec-http:4.1.108.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-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 4.1.108.Final or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v. 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.
The vulnerability in io.netty:netty-codec-http, allowing for Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling issues, is assessed as moderate severity due to its potential impact on system availability and performance. By exploiting the flaw in HttpPostRequestDecoder, an attacker can craft chunked POST requests…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Cryostat 2 on RHEL 8 | cryostat-tech-preview/cryostat-grafana-dashboard-rhel8:2.4.0-7 | RHSA-2024:2088 |
| HawtIO 4.0.0 for Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4 | netty-codec-http | RHSA-2024:3550 |
| Migration Toolkit for Runtimes 1 on RHEL 8 | netty-codec-http | RHSA-2024:6657 |
| Red Hat AMQ Broker 7 | netty-codec-http | RHSA-2024:2945 |
| Red Hat AMQ Streams 2.7.0 | netty-codec-http | RHSA-2024:3527 |
| Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.4.1 for Spring Boot 3.2 | see advisory | RHSA-2024:4884 |
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 3.2.12.Final | io.netty/netty-codec-http:4.1.108.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2024:2705 |
| Red Hat build of Quarkus 3.8.4.redhat | io.netty/netty-codec-http:4.1.108.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2024:2106 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-5jpm-x58v-624v across Maven dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.