CVE-2021-21295

NameCVE-2021-21295
DescriptionNetty is an open-source, asynchronous event-driven network application framework for rapid development of maintainable high performance protocol servers & clients. In Netty (io.netty:netty-codec-http2) before version 4.1.60.Final there is a vulnerability that enables request smuggling. If a Content-Length header is present in the original HTTP/2 request, the field is not validated by `Http2MultiplexHandler` as it is propagated up. This is fine as long as the request is not proxied through as HTTP/1.1. If the request comes in as an HTTP/2 stream, gets converted into the HTTP/1.1 domain objects (`HttpRequest`, `HttpContent`, etc.) via `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec `and then sent up to the child channel's pipeline and proxied through a remote peer as HTTP/1.1 this may result in request smuggling. In a proxy case, users may assume the content-length is validated somehow, which is not the case. If the request is forwarded to a backend channel that is a HTTP/1.1 connection, the Content-Length now has meaning and needs to be checked. An attacker can smuggle requests inside the body as it gets downgraded from HTTP/2 to HTTP/1.1. For an example attack refer to the linked GitHub Advisory. Users are only affected if all of this is true: `HTTP2MultiplexCodec` or `Http2FrameCodec` is used, `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec` is used to convert to HTTP/1.1 objects, and these HTTP/1.1 objects are forwarded to another remote peer. This has been patched in 4.1.60.Final As a workaround, the user can do the validation by themselves by implementing a custom `ChannelInboundHandler` that is put in the `ChannelPipeline` behind `Http2StreamFrameToHttpObjectCodec`.
SourceCVE (at NVD; CERT, LWN, oss-sec, fulldisc, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Gentoo, SUSE bugzilla/CVE, GitHub advisories/code/issues, web search, more)
ReferencesDSA-4885-1
Debian Bugs984948

Vulnerable and fixed packages

The table below lists information on source packages.

Source PackageReleaseVersionStatus
netty (PTS)jessie, jessie (lts)1:3.2.6.Final-2+deb8u2fixed
stretch (security)1:4.1.7-2+deb9u3vulnerable
stretch (lts), stretch1:4.1.7-2+deb9u5vulnerable
buster (security), buster, buster (lts)1:4.1.33-1+deb10u5fixed
bullseye (security), bullseye1:4.1.48-4+deb11u2fixed
bookworm (security), bookworm1:4.1.48-7+deb12u1fixed
sid, trixie1:4.1.48-10fixed
netty-3.9 (PTS)jessie, jessie (lts)3.9.0.Final-1+deb8u2fixed
stretch (security)3.9.9.Final-1+deb9u1fixed
stretch (lts), stretch3.9.9.Final-1+deb9u2fixed

The information below is based on the following data on fixed versions.

PackageTypeReleaseFixed VersionUrgencyOriginDebian Bugs
nettysourcejessie(not affected)
nettysourcebuster1:4.1.33-1+deb10u2DSA-4885-1
nettysource(unstable)1:4.1.48-3984948
netty-3.9source(unstable)(not affected)

Notes

[stretch] - netty <ignored> (Minor issue, fix requires major changes of HTTP2 module)
https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/89c241e3b1795ff257af4ad6eadc616cb2fb3dc4
[jessie] - netty <not-affected> (HTTP/2 support added in v4.1)
- netty-3.9 <not-affected> (HTTP/2 support added in v4.1)

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