5.3
MEDIUM CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-50020
Netty's HttpObjectDecoder skips arbitrary initial control characters when only initial CRLF characters are permitted
Description

Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. Prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, before reading the first request-line, `HttpObjectDecoder` skips every byte for which `Character.isISOControl(b)` is `true` (0x00–0x1F and 0x7F) as well as all whitespace. RFC 9112 §2.2 only asks servers to ignore empty CRLF lines preceding the request-line — a carefully scoped robustness allowance intended to handle HTTP/1.0 POST workarounds. Silently absorbing NUL bytes, SOH, STX, and other non-CRLF control characters goes significantly beyond this, and can be exploited for request-boundary confusion in pipelined or multiplexed transports where a front-end component treats those bytes differently. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.

INFO

Published Date :

June 12, 2026, 4:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

June 12, 2026, 5:16 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-50020 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 MEDIUM [email protected]
Solution
Update Netty to patched versions to fix improper handling of control characters in HTTP requests.
  • Update Netty to version 4.1.135.Final or later.
  • Update Netty to version 4.2.15.Final or later.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-50020 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-50020 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-50020 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-50020 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Jun. 12, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Reference https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-hvcg-qmg6-jm4c
  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Jun. 12, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Description Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. Prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, before reading the first request-line, `HttpObjectDecoder` skips every byte for which `Character.isISOControl(b)` is `true` (0x00–0x1F and 0x7F) as well as all whitespace. RFC 9112 §2.2 only asks servers to ignore empty CRLF lines preceding the request-line — a carefully scoped robustness allowance intended to handle HTTP/1.0 POST workarounds. Silently absorbing NUL bytes, SOH, STX, and other non-CRLF control characters goes significantly beyond this, and can be exploited for request-boundary confusion in pipelined or multiplexed transports where a front-end component treats those bytes differently. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N
    Added CWE CWE-444
    Added Reference https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.135.Final
    Added Reference https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.15.Final
    Added Reference https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-hvcg-qmg6-jm4c
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.