diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 7e1ca05fee06a..0fe66acca30e9 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ Inspired from [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/)
 - Unmute test RelocationIT.testRelocationWhileIndexingRandom ([#4580](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/pull/4580))
 - Add DecommissionService and helper to execute awareness attribute decommissioning ([#4084](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/pull/4084))
 - Further simplification of the ZIP publication implementation ([#4360](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/pull/4360))
+- Relax visibility of the HTTP_CHANNEL_KEY and HTTP_SERVER_CHANNEL_KEY to make it possible for the plugins to access associated Netty4HttpChannel / Netty4HttpServerChannel instance ([#4638](https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/pull/4638))
 
 ### Deprecated
 
diff --git a/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/opensearch/http/netty4/Netty4HttpServerTransport.java b/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/opensearch/http/netty4/Netty4HttpServerTransport.java
index 1e0a4d89f2fd5..e3fde75e5b551 100644
--- a/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/opensearch/http/netty4/Netty4HttpServerTransport.java
+++ b/modules/transport-netty4/src/main/java/org/opensearch/http/netty4/Netty4HttpServerTransport.java
@@ -332,8 +332,10 @@ public ChannelHandler configureServerChannelHandler() {
         return new HttpChannelHandler(this, handlingSettings);
     }
 
-    static final AttributeKey<Netty4HttpChannel> HTTP_CHANNEL_KEY = AttributeKey.newInstance("opensearch-http-channel");
-    static final AttributeKey<Netty4HttpServerChannel> HTTP_SERVER_CHANNEL_KEY = AttributeKey.newInstance("opensearch-http-server-channel");
+    protected static final AttributeKey<Netty4HttpChannel> HTTP_CHANNEL_KEY = AttributeKey.newInstance("opensearch-http-channel");
+    protected static final AttributeKey<Netty4HttpServerChannel> HTTP_SERVER_CHANNEL_KEY = AttributeKey.newInstance(
+        "opensearch-http-server-channel"
+    );
 
     protected static class HttpChannelHandler extends ChannelInitializer<Channel> {