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protobufjs: Denial of Service via unbounded recursive JSON descriptor expansion

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published May 13, 2026 in protobufjs/protobuf.js • Updated May 19, 2026

Package

npm protobufjs (npm)

Affected versions

<= 7.5.7
>= 8.0.0, < 8.2.0

Patched versions

7.5.8
8.2.0

Description

Summary

protobufjs could recurse without a depth limit while expanding nested JSON descriptors through Root.fromJSON() and Namespace.addJSON().

A crafted JSON descriptor with deeply nested namespace definitions could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during descriptor loading.

Impact

An attacker who can provide JSON descriptors loaded by an application may be able to crash the process or otherwise cause schema loading to fail with a stack overflow.

This affects applications that load JSON descriptors from untrusted sources with affected versions.

Preconditions

  • The application must load JSON descriptor data influenced by an attacker.
  • The crafted descriptor must contain deeply nested nested namespace objects.
  • The affected Root.fromJSON() / Namespace.addJSON() descriptor expansion path must process the crafted input.

Workarounds

Avoid loading untrusted protobuf JSON descriptors with affected versions. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reject excessively nested descriptor structures at an outer validation boundary where feasible, or isolate descriptor loading in a process that can be safely restarted.

References

@dcodeIO dcodeIO published to protobufjs/protobuf.js May 13, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database May 13, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database May 19, 2026
Reviewed May 19, 2026
Last updated May 19, 2026

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(18th percentile)

Weaknesses

Uncontrolled Recursion

The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-45740

GHSA ID

GHSA-jggg-4jg4-v7c6

Source code

Credits

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