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GHSA-8gq9-2x98-w8hf

HighCVSS 7.5 / 10
Published Sep 23, 2022·Last modified Mar 13, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

A message parsing and memory management vulnerability in ProtocolBuffer’s C++ and Python implementations can trigger an out of memory (OOM) failure when processing a specially crafted message, which could lead to a denial of service (DoS) on services using the libraries.

Reporter: ClusterFuzz

Affected versions: All versions of C++ Protobufs (including Python) prior to the versions listed below.

Severity & Impact

As scored by google
Medium 5.7 - CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Asscored byt NIST
High 7.5 - CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

A small (~500 KB) malicious payload can be constructed which causes the running service to allocate more than 3GB of RAM.

Proof of Concept

For reproduction details, please refer to the unit test that identifies the specific inputs that exercise this parsing weakness.

Mitigation / Patching

Please update to the latest available versions of the following packages:

  • protobuf-cpp (3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 3.21.6)
  • protobuf-python (3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 4.21.6)
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
1.21%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely 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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