Netty: HttpObjectDecoder skips arbitrary initial control characters when only initial CRLF characters are permitted — CVE-2026-50020

Summary

## Summary Before reading the first request-line, `HttpObjectDecoder` skips every byte for which `Character.isISOControl(b)` is `true` (0x00–0x1F and 0x7F) as well as all whitespace. RFC 9112 §2.2 only asks servers to ignore **empty CRLF lines** preceding the request-line — a carefully scoped robustness allowance intended to handle HTTP/1.0 POST workarounds. Silently absorbing NUL bytes, SOH, STX, and other…

Product

maven: io.netty:netty-codec-http

What to do

General, cautious steps (verify details in the official source):

• Review exposure and plan remediation based on risk and environment.
• Identify affected product versions in your inventory and verify whether you are impacted.
• Apply vendor patches/updates or recommended mitigations as soon as available.
• Read the official advisory for exact affected versions and remediation steps.

Official advisory

• Read the official source
• CVE Record
• NVD

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