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GHSA-26vr-8j45-3r4w

HighCVSS 7.5 / 10
Published Apr 6, 2021·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Impact

When using SSL/TLS with Jetty, either with HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, or WebSocket, the server may receive an invalid large (greater than 17408) TLS frame that is incorrectly handled, causing CPU resources to eventually reach 100% usage.

Workarounds

The problem can be worked around by compiling the following class:

package org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLEngineResult;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLException;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException;

import org.eclipse.jetty.io.EndPoint;
import org.eclipse.jetty.io.ssl.SslConnection;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.Connector;
import org.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactory;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.BufferUtil;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.annotation.Name;
import org.eclipse.jetty.util.ssl.SslContextFactory;

public class SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory extends SslConnectionFactory
{
    public SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory(@Name("sslContextFactory") SslContextFactory factory, @Name("next") String nextProtocol)
    {
        super(factory, nextProtocol);
    }

    @Override
    protected SslConnection newSslConnection(Connector connector, EndPoint endPoint, SSLEngine engine)
    {
        return new SslConnection(connector.getByteBufferPool(), connector.getExecutor(), endPoint, engine, isDirectBuffersForEncryption(), isDirectBuffersForDecryption())
        {
            @Override
            protected SSLEngineResult unwrap(SSLEngine sslEngine, ByteBuffer input, ByteBuffer output) throws SSLException
            {
                SSLEngineResult results = super.unwrap(sslEngine, input, output);

                if ((results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.BUFFER_UNDERFLOW ||
                    results.getStatus() == SSLEngineResult.Status.OK && results.bytesConsumed() == 0 && results.bytesProduced() == 0) &&
                    BufferUtil.space(input) == 0)
                {
                    BufferUtil.clear(input);
                    throw new SSLHandshakeException("Encrypted buffer max length exceeded");
                }
                return results;
            }
        };
    }
}

This class can be deployed by:

  • The resulting class file should be put into a jar file (eg sslfix6072.jar)
  • The jar file should be made available to the server. For a normal distribution this can be done by putting the file into ${jetty.base}/lib
  • Copy the file ${jetty.home}/modules/ssl.mod to ${jetty.base}/modules
  • Edit the ${jetty.base}/modules/ssl.mod file to have the following section:
[lib]
lib/sslfix6072.jar
  • Copy the file ${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-https.xml and${jetty.home}/etc/jetty-http2.xml to ${jetty.base}/etc
  • Edit files ${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-https.xml and ${jetty.base}/etc/jetty-http2.xml, changing any reference of org.eclipse.jetty.server.SslConnectionFactory to org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory. For example:
  <Call name="addIfAbsentConnectionFactory">
    <Arg>
      <New class="org.eclipse.jetty.server.ssl.fix6072.SpaceCheckingSslConnectionFactory">
        <Arg name="next">http/1.1</Arg>
        <Arg name="sslContextFactory"><Ref refid="sslContextFactory"/></Arg>
      </New>
    </Arg>
  </Call>
  • Restart Jetty
Risk Scores
Base Score
7.5

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker does not need any special privileges or access rights. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The impact is confined to the system where the vulnerability exists. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
6.9

Exploitation attempts have been detected. Elevated vigilance and prompt remediation are advised.

EPSS
53.86%

The exploit probability is high. The vulnerability is very likely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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