Resource exhaustion in Netty

CVE-2026-100660

Netty's HTTP/3 codec (io.netty:netty-codec-http3) from 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final retains unbounded per-stream QPACK encoder state. QpackEncoder stores a queue and a dynamic-table index tracker for every encoded field section that references the QPACK dynamic table, keyed by the peer-controlled QUIC stream ID, and these entries are released only when the remote decoder sends a Section Acknowledgment or Stream Cancellation instruction — not when the HTTP/3 stream completes. There is no limit on the number of tracked streams, field sections, or retained bytes. A remote, unauthenticated HTTP/3 client can advertise a non-zero QPACK dynamic-table capacity, acknowledge the table insertion so the server reuses a dynamically indexed response header, and then omit all mandatory Section Acknowledgments while issuing sequential requests over a single QUIC connection, bypassing concurrent-stream limits and causing unbounded heap growth until the server exhausts memory (denial of service). Fixed in 4.2.18.Final.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (39.7th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 40th percentile — 39.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-100660: held from 0.004 to 0.005.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-100660?
CVE-2026-100660 is a high-severity vulnerability in Netty, classified under Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-09-26.
How severe is CVE-2026-100660?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.