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GHSA-wrvw-hg22-4m67

HighCVSS 7.5 / 10
Published Jan 7, 2022·Last modified Feb 4, 2026
Affected Components(0)

No affected components available

Description

Summary

A potential Denial of Service issue in protobuf-java was discovered in the parsing procedure for binary data.

Reporter: OSS-Fuzz

Affected versions: All versions of Java Protobufs (including Kotlin and JRuby) prior to the versions listed below. Protobuf "javalite" users (typically Android) are not affected.

Severity

CVE-2021-22569 High - CVSS Score: 7.5, An implementation weakness in how unknown fields are parsed in Java. A small (~800 KB) malicious payload can occupy the parser for several minutes by creating large numbers of short-lived objects that cause frequent, repeated GC pauses.

Proof of Concept

For reproduction details, please refer to the oss-fuzz issue that identifies the specific inputs that exercise this parsing weakness.

Remediation and Mitigation

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

  • protobuf-java (3.16.1, 3.18.2, 3.19.2)
  • protobuf-kotlin (3.18.2, 3.19.2)
  • google-protobuf [JRuby gem only] (3.19.2)
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
1.65%

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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