CVE-2026-50011
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedNetty is a network application framework for development of protocol servers and clients. Prior to versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final, RedisArrayAggregator pre-allocates ArrayList with initial capacity equal to the RESP array element count declared in an array header. That count is taken from the wire before the corresponding child messages exist. A small malicious header can claim a huge initial capacity. Versions 4.1.135.Final and 4.2.15.Final patch the issue.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe RedisArrayAggregator in Netty pre-allocates an ArrayList with initial capacity equal to the RESP array element count received from the network before validating or receiving actual elements. A remote attacker can send a small Redis protocol message with a malicious header claiming an extremely large number of elements (e.g., Integer.MAX_VALUE), causing excessive memory allocation and potential heap exhaustion (CWE-400).
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data< 4.1.135>= 4.2.0, < 4.2.15CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Netty version in useCheck your project's dependency management (Maven pom.xml, Gradle build.gradle, or equivalent) for the netty dependency version. If deployed as a JAR, inspect the netty-common or netty-transport JAR manifest for the Implementation-Version.Affected if The Netty version is less than 4.1.135 or greater than or equal to 4.2.0 but less than 4.2.15
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Verify Redis codec is loadedSearch your codebase or application configuration for imports or references to io.netty.handler.codec.redis.RedisArrayAggregator, io.netty.handler.codec.redis.RedisDecoder, or similar Redis codec classes. Check if your ChannelPipeline initializes any Redis-related handlers.Affected if RedisArrayAggregator or RedisDecoder is instantiated and added to a channel pipeline that processes incoming network data
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Confirm untrusted network exposureInspect your server's network listeners and protocol handlers. Determine whether the Redis codec pipeline is exposed to external network traffic versus only internal, trusted clients.Affected if The Redis codec handles requests from untrusted or public network sources without upstream validation of the RESP array count field
Your environment is affected if you run a Netty version below 4.1.135 or between 4.2.0 and 4.2.14, and your application uses the RedisArrayAggregator or RedisDecoder to process untrusted Redis protocol traffic where an attacker can control the RESP array element count header.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped4.1.1354.2.15
Upgrade Netty to version 4.1.135.Final or 4.2.15.Final or later which patches the pre-allocation vulnerability. As a compensating control, network-level rate limiting on Redis connections may help mitigate exploitation.
4.1.135.Final (for 4.1.x users) or 4.2.15.Final (for 4.2.x users)
- Identify the Netty dependency in your project (typically netty-codec-redis or a netty BOM dependency)
- Determine your current Netty major version (4.1.x or 4.2.x) from your dependency management
- If using 4.1.x line: upgrade to version 4.1.135.Final
- If using 4.2.x line: upgrade to version 4.2.15.Final
- Update the version in your pom.xml, build.gradle, or equivalent dependency management file
- Rebuild the project and run tests to verify the upgrade does not break existing functionality
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-50011 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-50011 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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