Netty is an asynchronous, event-driven network application framework. Prior to 4.1.137.Fina and 4.2.17.Final, io.netty.handler.ssl.SslClientHelloHandler#decode checks the wrong offset before reading the four-byte TLS handshake header, so a ClientHello whose handshake header spans records can cause an IndexOutOfBoundsException and invoke select(ctx, null). This selects the default SslContext instead of the SNI-specific context. In deployments where per-SNI clientAuth=REQUIRE is the sole mutual TLS gate, the default SslContext uses clientAuth=NONE or clientAuth=OPTIONAL, and no application-layer certificate verification exists, an unauthenticated remote attacker can bypass the protected route's mutual TLS requirement. This issue is fixed in versions 4.1.137.Final and 4.2.17.Final.
https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-c4c3-7fpv-j4q5
https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.2.17.Final
https://github.com/netty/netty/releases/tag/netty-4.1.137.Final
https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17217
https://github.com/netty/netty/pull/17213
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/9e0519239108a69b7e9bbc5e9182ee139a0d7961
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/1b5abc6443b63726c72cdd285af2feb7ddbb8ff7
Published: 2026-08-19
Updated: 2026-09-09
Base Score: 4.3
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
Severity: Medium
Base Score: 9.8
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity: Critical
Base Score: 9.1
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: Critical
EPSS: 0.00317