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High, CVSS 7.5amended

Netty: Memory Exhaustion in SctpMessageCompletionHandler

CVE-2026-59902GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (io.netty:netty-transport-sctp 4.2.17.Final, 4.1.137.Final), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
EPSS
  • CVE-2026-59902: 0.36% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 30.45 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Summary SctpMessageCompletionHandler does not limit the total size of buffered fragments, allowing an unauthenticated attacker to cause an OutOfMemoryError by sending large SCTP fragments. Details io.netty.handler.codec.sctp.SctpMessageCompletionHandler buffers fragments for incomplete SCTP messages. The fix for CVE-2026-46340 fixed unbounded memory growth by introducing limits on the number of concurrent incomplete messages (maxIncompleteSctpMessages) and the number of fragments per message (maxFragments). While the count of fragments is now bounded, the handler still does not enforce a maximum size in bytes. With the default limits of 128 messages and 128 fragments, and a typical max SCTP chunk size of 64KB, an attacker can consume up to ~1GB per connection. By opening a small number of concurrent connections, an attacker can easily exhaust the server's memory, causing an OutOfMemoryError. Impact Memory Exhaustion. Any application using Netty's SCTP transport with…

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 2 · amended ·

    Amended from ghsa record GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f

  2. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from osv record GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-59902

Advisory: Netty: Memory Exhaustion in SctpMessageCompletionHandler
IDs: CVE-2026-59902, GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-59902 (revision 2, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 16:54 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: io.netty:netty-transport-sctp 4.2.17.Final, 4.1.137.Final. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Maven io.netty:netty-transport-sctp: affected >= 4.2.0.Final, <= 4.2.16.Final; <= 4.1.136.Final; fixed in 4.2.17.Final, 4.1.137.Final

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Maven io.netty:netty-transport-sctp: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on io.netty:netty-transport-sctp.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f (OSV record GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f lists affected ranges: Maven io.netty:netty-transport-sctp >=4.2.0.Final =0 <4.1.137.Final (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-2qj4-mmr9-4v2f lists affected ranges: Maven io.netty:netty-transport-sctp >=4.2.0.Final =0 <=4.1.136.Final)

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