GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2025/06/GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7/GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7
Aliases
Related
Published
2025-06-16T16:02:58Z
Modified
2025-06-16T16:27:17.848804Z
Downstream
Severity
  • 8.2 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
protobuf-python has a potential Denial of Service issue
Details

Summary

Any project that uses Protobuf pure-Python backend to parse untrusted Protocol Buffers data containing an arbitrary number of recursive groups, recursive messages or a series of SGROUP tags can be corrupted by exceeding the Python recursion limit.

Reporter: Alexis Challande, Trail of Bits Ecosystem Security Team ecosystem@trailofbits.com

Affected versions: This issue only affects the pure-Python implementation of protobuf-python backend. This is the implementation when PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=python environment variable is set or the default when protobuf is used from Bazel or pure-Python PyPi wheels. CPython PyPi wheels do not use pure-Python by default.

This is a Python variant of a previous issue affecting protobuf-java.

Severity

This is a potential Denial of Service. Parsing nested protobuf data creates unbounded recursions that can be abused by an attacker.

Proof of Concept

For reproduction details, please refer to the unit tests decodertest.py and messagetest

Remediation and Mitigation

A mitigation is available now. Please update to the latest available versions of the following packages: * protobuf-python(4.25.8, 5.29.5, 6.31.1)

Database specific 
{
    "github_reviewed": true,
    "severity": "HIGH",
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-674"
    ],
    "github_reviewed_at": "2025-06-16T16:02:58Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2025-06-16T15:15:24Z"
}
References

Affected packages

PyPI / protobuf

Package

Name
protobuf
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/protobuf

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
4.25.8

Affected versions

2.*

2.0.0beta
2.0.3
2.3.0
2.4.1
2.5.0
2.6.0
2.6.1

3.*

3.0.0a2
3.0.0a3
3.0.0b1
3.0.0b1.post1
3.0.0b1.post2
3.0.0b2
3.0.0b2.post1
3.0.0b2.post2
3.0.0b3
3.0.0b4
3.0.0
3.1.0
3.1.0.post1
3.2.0rc1
3.2.0rc1.post1
3.2.0rc2
3.2.0
3.3.0
3.4.0
3.5.0.post1
3.5.1
3.5.2
3.5.2.post1
3.6.0
3.6.1
3.7.0rc2
3.7.0rc3
3.7.0
3.7.1
3.8.0rc1
3.8.0
3.9.0rc1
3.9.0
3.9.1
3.9.2
3.10.0rc1
3.10.0
3.11.0rc1
3.11.0rc2
3.11.0
3.11.1
3.11.2
3.11.3
3.12.0rc1
3.12.0rc2
3.12.0
3.12.1
3.12.2
3.12.4
3.13.0rc3
3.13.0
3.14.0rc1
3.14.0rc2
3.14.0rc3
3.14.0
3.15.0rc1
3.15.0rc2
3.15.0
3.15.1
3.15.2
3.15.3
3.15.4
3.15.5
3.15.6
3.15.7
3.15.8
3.16.0rc1
3.16.0rc2
3.16.0
3.17.0rc1
3.17.0rc2
3.17.0
3.17.1
3.17.2
3.17.3
3.18.0rc1
3.18.0rc2
3.18.0
3.18.1
3.18.3
3.19.0rc1
3.19.0rc2
3.19.0
3.19.1
3.19.2
3.19.3
3.19.4
3.19.5
3.19.6
3.20.0rc1
3.20.0rc2
3.20.0
3.20.1rc1
3.20.1
3.20.2
3.20.3

4.*

4.0.0rc1
4.0.0rc2
4.21.0rc1
4.21.0rc2
4.21.0
4.21.1
4.21.2
4.21.3
4.21.4
4.21.5
4.21.6
4.21.7
4.21.8
4.21.9
4.21.10
4.21.11
4.21.12
4.22.0rc1
4.22.0rc2
4.22.0rc3
4.22.0
4.22.1
4.22.3
4.22.4
4.22.5
4.23.0rc2
4.23.0rc3
4.23.0
4.23.1
4.23.2
4.23.3
4.23.4
4.24.0rc1
4.24.0rc2
4.24.0rc3
4.24.0
4.24.1
4.24.2
4.24.3
4.24.4
4.25.0rc1
4.25.0rc2
4.25.0
4.25.1
4.25.2
4.25.3
4.25.4
4.25.5
4.25.6
4.25.7

PyPI / protobuf

Package

Name
protobuf
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/protobuf

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
5.26.0rc1
Fixed
5.29.5

Affected versions

5.*

5.26.0rc1
5.26.0rc2
5.26.0rc3
5.26.0
5.26.1
5.27.0rc1
5.27.0rc2
5.27.0rc3
5.27.0
5.27.1
5.27.2
5.27.3
5.27.4
5.27.5
5.28.0rc1
5.28.0rc2
5.28.0rc3
5.28.0
5.28.1
5.28.2
5.28.3
5.29.0rc1
5.29.0rc2
5.29.0rc3
5.29.0
5.29.1
5.29.2
5.29.3
5.29.4

PyPI / protobuf

Package

Name
protobuf
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:pypi/protobuf

Affected ranges

Type
ECOSYSTEM
Events
Introduced
6.30.0rc1
Fixed
6.31.1

Affected versions

6.*

6.30.0rc1
6.30.0rc2
6.30.0
6.30.1
6.30.2
6.31.0rc1
6.31.0rc2
6.31.0