Netty's STOMP codec (io.netty:netty-codec-stomp) contains a ByteBuf leak in StompSubframeDecoder. Once a frame's declared content-length has been fully read, the decoder allocates a chunk buffer from the channel allocator and parks it in an instance field while waiting for the single NUL byte that terminates the frame. If that byte never arrives, the buffer is never released: the replay Signal thrown by skipNullCharacter extends Error rather than Exception, so the decoder's catch(Exception) release path does not run, and StompSubframeDecoder overrides neither handlerRemoved0 nor channelInactive, so the buffer also survives channel teardown. A remote peer can leak one allocator buffer per connection by sending a complete, well-formed frame body and withholding its terminating NUL byte; with the default pooled allocator the memory is never returned to the pool or reclaimed by garbage collection, so the leak accumulates for the lifetime of the process and can lead to memory exhaustion. This affects versions up to and including 4.1.137.Final and versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final; it is fixed in 4.1.138.Final and 4.2.18.Final.

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Sat, 26 Sep 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Netty's STOMP codec (io.netty:netty-codec-stomp) contains a ByteBuf leak in StompSubframeDecoder. Once a frame's declared content-length has been fully read, the decoder allocates a chunk buffer from the channel allocator and parks it in an instance field while waiting for the single NUL byte that terminates the frame. If that byte never arrives, the buffer is never released: the replay Signal thrown by skipNullCharacter extends Error rather than Exception, so the decoder's catch(Exception) release path does not run, and StompSubframeDecoder overrides neither handlerRemoved0 nor channelInactive, so the buffer also survives channel teardown. A remote peer can leak one allocator buffer per connection by sending a complete, well-formed frame body and withholding its terminating NUL byte; with the default pooled allocator the memory is never returned to the pool or reclaimed by garbage collection, so the leak accumulates for the lifetime of the process and can lead to memory exhaustion. This affects versions up to and including 4.1.137.Final and versions 4.2.0.Final through 4.2.17.Final; it is fixed in 4.1.138.Final and 4.2.18.Final.
Title Netty before 4.1.138.Final ByteBuf Leak in StompSubframeDecoder
First Time appeared Netty
Netty netty
Weaknesses CWE-772
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:netty:netty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Netty
Netty netty
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

cvssV4_0

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': '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'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: VulnCheck

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-26T13:23:25.432Z

Reserved: 2026-09-26T02:33:59.038Z

Link: CVE-2026-100657

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-26T14:16:48.540

Modified: 2026-09-26T14:16:48.540

Link: CVE-2026-100657

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses