CVE-2026-59900: Netty codec-http2: Lack of Host Header Deduplication in HTTP/2→HTTP/1.x Translation Leads to Request Routing Bypass

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.3 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-07-29 · updated 2026-08-06
Weakness: CWE-444

Description

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final, Netty's HTTP/2-to-HTTP/1.x translation layer (`Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec` and `InboundHttp2ToHttpAdapter`) fails to deduplicate or validate `Host` headers when an HTTP/2 client supplies both the `:authority` pseudo-header and a literal `host` header in a single HEADERS frame. The translator maps `:authority` to `Host` and separately copies the literal `host` header, producing an `HttpRequest` object containing two `Host` headers with attacker-controlled differing values. This issue has been fixed in versions 4.1.136.Final and 4.2.16.Final.

Affected products

netty: before 4.1.136; from 4.2.0 before 4.2.16 — fixed in 4.1.136, 4.2.16

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: netty 4.1.136, 4.2.16. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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