Vulnerability in Oracle Netty (CVE-2021-43797, CVSS 6.5)

Summary

Vulnerability in Oracle Netty (CVE-2021-43797). Data can be tampered with by attackers.

Original description

The description as published by the source.

Impact

Netty currently just skips control chars when these are present at the beginning / end of the header name. We should better fail fast as these are not allowed by the spec and could lead to HTTP request smuggling.

Failing to do the validation might cause netty to "sanitize" header names before it forward these to another remote system when used as proxy. This remote system can't see the invalid usage anymore and so not do the validation itself.

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory

Auto-generated summary

Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.

A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2021-43797 has been found in Oracle Netty.
Data can be tampered with by attackers. CVSS score: 6.5/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Oracle Netty CVE-2021-43797" on the vendor's site.

CVE-2021-43797 (Oracle Netty) — CWE-444 / CVSS v3 6.5
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / unauthenticated
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.

❓ What is the problem

A vulnerability (CWE-444) exists in Oracle Netty.

📍 Affected scope

Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Oracle Netty.

🔥 Severity

Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.5/10). Data can be tampered with by attackers.

🔧 How to fix

Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.

🛡️ Workaround

Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.

🔍 Detection

Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Netty' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.

Response actions

Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order

1
Identify exposure identify
```
grep -r 'Netty' . | grep -v node_modules
```
リポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で Netty を grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。
2
Post-deployment verification verify
```
Confirm patched version is live in production
```
パッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。

Affected packages

Maven io.netty:netty-codec-http

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.0.0"},{"fixed":"4.1.71.Final"}]}]

Maven org.jboss.netty:netty

[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}]

Maven io.netty:netty