GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch
HIGHGHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-770 vulnerability in io.netty:netty-transport-sctp. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
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
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-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch 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 0 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-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
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.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-transport-sctp | ≥ 4.2.0.Final&&< 4.2.15.Final | 4.2.15.Final |
| ☕Maven | io.netty:netty-transport-sctp | all versions | 4.1.135.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-transport-sctp. 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-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
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 GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch 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 GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch. 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.
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…
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-5xrh-qmmq-w6ch across Maven dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.