CVE-2026-85721
| Severity | 7.5 High CVSS 3.1 |
|---|---|
| Fixed in | 3.0.12, 2.16.1 |
| Weakness | Uncontrolled resource consumption (CWE-400) |
| Published | 17 Sep 2026 |
| Updated | 30 Sep 2026 |
Published 58 days ago. NVD often adds the list of affected products days or weeks after a CVE is published, and the other sources we check lag too. The scope and status here may change.
Description
The AsyncHttpClient (AHC) library allows Java applications to easily execute HTTP requests and asynchronously process HTTP responses. From 2.0.0 until 2.16.1 and 3.0.12, automatic response decompression on the HTTP/1.1 path uses ChannelManager.newHttpContentDecompressor() to install Http1ContentDecompressor without a cumulative output-size limit. A hostile or compromised server, or an attacker who can alter a response in transit, can send a small gzip, deflate, or snappy response that expands across chunks until the client exhausts its heap and raises OutOfMemoryError; brotli and zstd are also affected when their optional codecs are present. In versions 3.0.8 through 3.0.10, the HTTP/2 decompressor is also unbounded, so switching protocols does not mitigate the issue on those releases. A limit applied to each decode call is insufficient because the response can be delivered as many small chunks, so the fixed implementation tracks total decompressed bytes for the whole response. This issue is fixed in versions 2.16.1 and 3.0.12.
CWE-409
Exploitation status
No public exploit
No exploit has been reported in the sources we check. The 1 repository below are public GitHub repositories with fewer than 5 stars.
Exploitation status
- CISA KEV not listed
- VulnCheck KEV not listed
- CISA Vulnrichment exploitation: none
- Indexed PoC 1 indexed, none at 5+ stars
- EPSS 0.63% chance in 30 days
Waratek protection
Within Waratek scope. In the sources we check, nobody has published exploit code for this CVE or reported it being exploited.
A public code fix exists: AsyncHttpClient/async-http-client 5ee2841.
- Protection none
- Action unverified
- Review automated Upstream data
- Record active
| Decided by | Exploit code for this candidate, published in a reviewed catalogue or a GitHub repository with 5 or more stars, or in use per CISA or VulnCheck; not only a CISA verdict, a forecast, or nothing at all |
|---|---|
| Finding | This CVE is not listed in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV, CISA Vulnrichment records no active exploitation, no reviewed exploit catalogue carries an entry for it, and no GitHub PoC repository for it has 5 or more stars. Nobody has published exploit code worth tracing, so it is not a candidate for a rule ahead of the ones where somebody has; an upstream fix path does exist, so the remediation half of the candidacy still holds. This is a statement about what has been published, not about whether the defect is reachable or serious. |
| Candidate fix | https://github.com/AsyncHttpClient/async-http-client/commit/5ee2841cbf268bba4a200578be3938ccfc6cc6d6 : a commit: the change itself |
Affected software and releases
Maven packages
Affected and fixed versions, from OSV.dev| Package | Introduced | Fixed | Last affected |
|---|---|---|---|
org.asynchttpclient:async-http-client |
3.0.0 | 3.0.12 |
unbounded |
org.asynchttpclient:async-http-client |
2.0.0 | 2.16.1 |
unbounded |
Products and versions
1 product, 2 version entries| Source | Vendor | Product | Scheme | Affected versions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| osv | org.asynchttpclient | async-http-client | generic | ≥ 2.0.0 and ＜ 2.16.1 · ≥ 3.0.0 and ＜ 3.0.12 |
References
Timeline
Timeline
| Published | 2026-09-17 | By the CVE Program. |
|---|---|---|
| NVD record modified | 2026-09-30 | NVD's own last-modified date for this record. |