diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 086e0e57b9..c8419abab2 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@
  * Split consistent range movement flag correction (CASSANDRA-12786)
  * CompactionTasks now correctly drops sstables out of compaction when not enough disk space is available (CASSANDRA-12979)
 Merged from 2.1:
+ * Upgrade netty version to fix memory leak with client encryption (CASSANDRA-13114)
  * Fix paging for DISTINCT queries on partition keys and static columns (CASSANDRA-13017)
  * Fix race causing infinite loop if Thrift server is stopped before it starts listening (CASSANDRA-12856)
  * cqlsh copy-from: sort user type fields in csv (CASSANDRA-12959)
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index d9f8198273..94e472349a 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -407,7 +407,7 @@
           <dependency groupId="com.addthis.metrics" artifactId="reporter-config3" version="3.0.0" />
           <dependency groupId="org.mindrot" artifactId="jbcrypt" version="0.3m" />
           <dependency groupId="io.airlift" artifactId="airline" version="0.6" />
-          <dependency groupId="io.netty" artifactId="netty-all" version="4.0.23.Final" />
+          <dependency groupId="io.netty" artifactId="netty-all" version="4.0.44.Final" />
           <dependency groupId="com.google.code.findbugs" artifactId="jsr305" version="2.0.2" />
           <dependency groupId="com.clearspring.analytics" artifactId="stream" version="2.5.2" />
           <!-- TODO CASSANDRA-9543
diff --git a/lib/licenses/netty-all-4.0.23.Final.txt b/lib/licenses/netty-all-4.0.44.Final.txt
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/licenses/netty-all-4.0.23.Final.txt
rename to lib/licenses/netty-all-4.0.44.Final.txt
diff --git a/lib/netty-all-4.0.23.Final.jar b/lib/netty-all-4.0.23.Final.jar
deleted file mode 100644
index 0555a164d2..0000000000
Binary files a/lib/netty-all-4.0.23.Final.jar and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/lib/netty-all-4.0.44.Final.jar b/lib/netty-all-4.0.44.Final.jar
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9c5bda5e2d
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/netty-all-4.0.44.Final.jar differ
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/transport/Message.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/transport/Message.java
index 01a0794e50..e4f5cacf4a 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/transport/Message.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/transport/Message.java
@@ -545,15 +545,19 @@ public abstract class Message
         public void exceptionCaught(final ChannelHandlerContext ctx, Throwable cause)
         throws Exception
         {
+            // Provide error message to client in case channel is still open
+            UnexpectedChannelExceptionHandler handler = new UnexpectedChannelExceptionHandler(ctx.channel(), false);
+            ErrorMessage errorMessage = ErrorMessage.fromException(cause, handler);
             if (ctx.channel().isOpen())
             {
-                UnexpectedChannelExceptionHandler handler = new UnexpectedChannelExceptionHandler(ctx.channel(), false);
-                ChannelFuture future = ctx.writeAndFlush(ErrorMessage.fromException(cause, handler));
+                ChannelFuture future = ctx.writeAndFlush(errorMessage);
                 // On protocol exception, close the channel as soon as the message have been sent
                 if (cause instanceof ProtocolException)
                 {
-                    future.addListener(new ChannelFutureListener() {
-                        public void operationComplete(ChannelFuture future) {
+                    future.addListener(new ChannelFutureListener()
+                    {
+                        public void operationComplete(ChannelFuture future)
+                        {
                             ctx.close();
                         }
                     });