CVE-2021-21409 | Possible request smuggling in HTTP/2 due missing validation of content-length

Netty 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 4.1.61.Final there is a vulnerability that enables request smuggling. The content-length header is not correctly validated if the request only uses a single Http2HeaderFrame with the endStream set to to true. This could lead to request smuggling if the request is proxied to a remote peer and translated to HTTP/1.1. This is a followup of GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj/CVE-2021-21295 which did miss to fix this one case. This was fixed as part of 4.1.61.Final.

Published: 2021-03-30 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2021-21409 is rated Moderate Risk (54.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 3.16%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2021-21409

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-07 2.55% 3.16% +0.61%
2 2026-03-05 3.16% 2.55% -0.61%
3 2026-03-04 3.16%

Full EPSS history (59 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2021-21409

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 3.6 [email protected]
5.9 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.2 3.6 [email protected]
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2021-21409

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2021-21409

GHSA-f256-j965-7f32 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: maven — Possible request smuggling in HTTP/2 due missing validation of content-length

OS Trackers for CVE-2021-21409

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2021-21409 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (netty), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2021-21409
redhat medium https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-21409
suse medium CVE-2021-21409 severity moderate: SUSE including 10 source package names (5.0.0-beta1.2.122:netty-4.1.75-150200.4.9.1, 5.1.0.6.40:netty-4.1.75-150200.4.9.1, …), 33 product×package rows across 29 product lines (Container suse/manager/5.0/x86_64/server, Container suse/multi-linux-manager/5.1/x86_64/server, … (29 product lines)): Known Not Affected 17, Fixed 16. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-21409/
ubuntu medium CVE-2021-21409 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (netty), 16 status rows across 16 suites (bionic, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 10, ignored 5, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2021-21409

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2021-21409

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
netty netty < 4.1.61 cpe:2.3:a:netty:netty:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp oncommand_api_services cpe:2.3:a:netapp:oncommand_api_services:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp oncommand_workflow_automation cpe:2.3:a:netapp:oncommand_workflow_automation:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_corporate_lending_process_management 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_corporate_lending_process_management:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_credit_facilities_process_management 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_credit_facilities_process_management:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_trade_finance_process_management 14.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_trade_finance_process_management:14.2.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_trade_finance_process_management 14.3.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_trade_finance_process_management:14.3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle banking_trade_finance_process_management 14.5.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:banking_trade_finance_process_management:14.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle coherence 12.2.1.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:coherence:12.2.1.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle coherence 14.1.1.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:coherence:14.1.1.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_brm_-_elastic_charging_engine 12.0.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_brm_-_elastic_charging_engine:12.0.0.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_console 1.7.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_console:1.7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_cloud_native_core_policy 1.14.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_policy:1.14.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_design_studio 7.4.2.0.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_design_studio:7.4.2.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle communications_messaging_server 8.1 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_messaging_server:8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle helidon 1.4.10 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:helidon:1.4.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle helidon 2.4.0 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:helidon:2.4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle jd_edwards_enterpriseone_tools < 9.2.6.3 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:jd_edwards_enterpriseone_tools:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle nosql_database < 21.1.12 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:nosql_database:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_gateway >= 17.12.0, <= 17.12.11 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_gateway >= 18.8.0, <= 18.8.11 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
oracle primavera_gateway >= 19.12.0, <= 19.12.10 cpe:2.3:a:oracle:primavera_gateway:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
quarkus quarkus <= 1.13.7 cpe:2.3:a:quarkus:quarkus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2021-21409

URL Tags
https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2021-21295 Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/netty/netty/commit/b0fa4d5aab4215f3c22ce6123dd8dd5f38dc0432 Patch Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-f256-j965-7f32 Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/netty/netty/security/advisories/GHSA-wm47-8v5p-wjpj Third Party Advisory
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r0b09f3e31e004fe583f677f7afa46bd30110904576c13c5ac818ac2c%40%3Cissues.flink.apache.org%3E
https://lists.apache.org/thread.html/r0ca82fec33334e571fe5b388272260778883e307e15415d7b1443de2%40%3Cissues.zookeeper.apache.org%3E
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https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20210604-0003/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4885 Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com//security-alerts/cpujul2021.html Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuapr2022.html Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpujan2022.html Patch Third Party Advisory
https://www.oracle.com/security-alerts/cpuoct2021.html Patch Third Party Advisory
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