CVE-2026-44893: Netty: HAProxy SSL TLV parsing leaks retained slice on invalid TLV length

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-06-12 · updated 2026-09-18
Weakness: CWE-703

Description

Netty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. In netty-codec-haproxy prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, when decoding a PP2_TYPE_SSL TLV, HAProxyMessage.readNextTLV() first calls `header.retainedSlice(header.readerIndex(), length)` and only then reads the 1-byte client field and 4-byte verify field. If the attacker sets the TLV length below 5, the subsequent readByte/readInt throws IndexOutOfBoundsException. HAProxyMessageDecoder only catches HAProxyProtocolException around this call, so the IOOBE propagates and the retained slice on the pooled cumulation buffer is never released. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.

Affected products

netty: before 4.1.135; from 4.2.0 before 4.2.15 — fixed in 4.1.135, 4.2.15

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: netty 4.1.135, 4.2.15. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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