GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch — netty-transport-sctp
HIGHGHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-770 vulnerability in io.netty:netty-transport-sctp. A fix is available for io.netty:netty-transport-sctp — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Netty: SCTP reassembly nests buffers without bound
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-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,842 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
io.netty:netty-transport-sctp☕io.netty:netty-transport-sctpReal-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 of netty-transport-sctp prior to 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, for each non-complete SctpMessage fragment the handler does fragments.put(streamId, Unpooled.wrappedBuffer(frag, byteBuf)), wrapping the previous accumulator and the new slice into a new CompositeByteBuf every time. After N fragments the accumulator is an N-deep chain of composites, each holding references and component arrays; readableBytes()/getBytes() on the final buffer recurse N levels. There is no limit on N, on total bytes, or on the number of streamIdentifiers an attacker can open (each gets its own map entry). A peer that never sets the complete flag can grow this structure indefinitely from tiny 1-byte DATA chunks. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-transport-sctp | ≥ 4.2.0.Final&&< 4.2.15.Final | 4.2.15.Finalio.netty:netty-transport-sctp:4.2.15.Final |
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-transport-sctp | all versions | 4.1.135.Finalio.netty:netty-transport-sctp:4.1.135.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-transport-sctp, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.netty:netty-transport-sctp to 4.2.15.Final or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch 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.
An Important denial of service flaw exists in `netty-transport-sctp`, a component used across various Red Hat products. A remote, unauthenticated attacker can exploit this vulnerability by sending fragmented Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) messages without the completion flag. This leads to unbounded…
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 GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat build of Apache Camel 4.18.1.P1 for Spring Boot 3.5.16 | netty-transport-sctp | RHSA-2026:37390 |
| Red Hat Data Grid 8.6.2 | netty-transport-sctp | RHSA-2026:41951 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4.25 | io.netty/netty-transport-sctp:4.1.135.Final-redhat-00001 | RHSA-2026:53806 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 ELS on RHEL 7 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.16.0-22.redhat_00057.1.el7eap | RHSA-2026:53644 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 ELS on RHEL 8 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.16.0-22.redhat_00057.1.el8eap | RHSA-2026:53645 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.4 ELS on RHEL 9 | eap7-activemq-artemis-0:2.16.0-22.redhat_00057.1.el9eap | RHSA-2026:53646 |
| Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 8.1 | netty-transport-sctp | RHSA-2026:50085 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.