protobufjs: Denial of service through unbounded protobuf recursion
Priority MEDIUM 40CWE-674Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 fixed, 3 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-674.
Summary
protobufjs compiles protobuf definitions into JavaScript (JS) functions. Prior to 7.5.6 and 8.0.2, protobufjs could recurse without a depth limit while decoding nested protobuf data. This affected both skipping unknown group fields and generated decoding of nested message fields. A crafted protobuf binary payload could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during decoding. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.6 and 8.0.2.
Why it matters now
Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.0063 50th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial protobuf.js (protobufjs): 7.5.6, 8.0.2protobufjs (npm): 7.5.6, 8.0.2Red Hat: 3 advisoriesRed Hat: 2 fixed, 3 without a fix
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| protobufjs | protobuf.js | before 7.5.6; 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 | 7.5.6, 8.0.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | protobufjs (npm) | before 7.5.6 | 7.5.6 | Patch available | GHSA-685m-2w69-288q |
| — | protobufjs (npm) | 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 | 8.0.2 | Patch available | GHSA-685m-2w69-288q |
- protobuf.js Vendorprotobufjs Affected before 7.5.6; 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 Fixed in 7.5.6, 8.0.2 Patch available CNA
- protobufjs (npm) Vendor— Affected before 7.5.6 Fixed in 7.5.6 Patch available GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
- protobufjs (npm) Vendor— Affected 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 Fixed in 8.0.2 Patch available GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:protobufjs_project:protobufjs:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* | before 7.5.6; 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 | Vulnerable | protobufjs |
- cpe:2.3:a:protobufjs_project:protobufjs:*:*:*:*:*:node.js:*:* Versions before 7.5.6; 8.0.0 to before 8.0.2 Vulnerable ·protobufjs
Remediation
- Fix · CNA protobuf.js (protobufjs) Fixed in 7.5.6, 8.0.2
- Fix · GHSA-685m-2w69-288q protobufjs (npm) Fixed in 7.5.6 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-685m-2w69-288q protobufjs (npm) Fixed in 8.0.2 Advisory →
Red Hat 3 advisories
- RHSA-2026:84734 Released 2026-10-19 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 3.4.5 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-ai-gateway-payload-processing-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-automl-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-autorag-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:60520 Released 2026-08-27 · Red Hat rating CriticalRHOAI 3.4.4 - Red Hat OpenShift AI
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-automl-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-autorag-rhel9, registry.redhat.io/rhoai/odh-built-in-detector-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2026:42815 Released 2026-07-21 · Red Hat rating ImportantRed Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2 security update
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2 registry.redhat.io/ansible-automation-platform/automation-portal
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| OpenShift Pipelines | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:42815 |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4 | Fixed | RHSA-2026:60520, RHSA-2026:84734 |
Not affected: 10 products
- OpenShift Service Mesh 3
- Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2
- Red Hat Build of Podman Desktop
- Red Hat Developer Hub 1
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Hardened Images
- Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
- Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-44289
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
- 2026-10-20 Fix available: RHSA-2026:84734 · Red Hat
- 2026-10-20 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-25 EPSS moved to the below the 50th percentile
- 2026-10-27 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-28 EPSS moved to the 50th–90th percentile
- 2026-11-05 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Advisory 2
More Protobufjs vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-29851 protobufjs has an arbitrary code execution issue CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.4
- TI-2023-18481 "protobuf.js (aka protobufjs) 6.10.0 through 7.x before 7.2.5 allows Prototype Pollution… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2022-09438 Prototype pollution in protobufjs CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.2
- TI-2026-42691 protobufjs: Denial of Service via infinite loop in .proto option parsing CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-35993 protobufjs: Denial of service through unbounded Any expansion during JSON conversion CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2026-32261 protobufjs: Process-wide denial of service through unsafe option paths CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-44289 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-44289 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-685m-2w69-288q · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-44289 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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