netty/netty-incubator-codec-ohttp · Security

netty-incubator-codec-ohttp: [OHttpServerCodec] Native Direct-Memory Leak on AEAD Decryption Failure Leads to Gateway Denial of Service

GHSA ID
GHSA-vmr9-j6wf-pmh2
CVE ID
CVE-2026-54251
Severity
high
Published
Updated
CVSS v4
8.7 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Description

The netty-incubator-codec-ohttp library implements Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP) gateway and client functionality using Netty's ByteBuf memory management. When an OHTTP gateway processes encrypted client requests, it allocates a pooled direct (native off-heap) ByteBuf to hold the decrypted plaintext before the AEAD tag is verified. If the AEAD tag check fails — meaning the ciphertext is invalid — the decryption method throws a CryptoException, but the allocated buffer is never released because no try/finally block guards the allocation.

CWEs

References