protobufjs: Denial of service through unbounded Any expansion during JSON conversion
Summary
protobufjs could recurse without a depth limit while converting decoded messages to plain objects or JSON. This affected generated toObject() conversion and the custom google.protobuf.Any JSON conversion path.
A crafted protobuf binary payload containing deeply nested Any values could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during conversion to JSON.
Impact
An attacker who can provide protobuf binary data decoded by an application may be able to crash the process or otherwise cause message conversion to fail with a stack overflow.
This affects applications that decode untrusted protobuf input containing google.protobuf.Any values and then convert decoded messages to JSON or plain objects with JSON conversion enabled, for example through JSON.stringify(message), Message#toJSON(), or Type.toObject(message, { json: true }).
Applications that only decode and re-encode protobuf binary data without converting decoded messages to JSON are not directly affected by this issue.
Preconditions
- The application must decode protobuf binary data influenced by an attacker.
- The application schema must include
google.protobuf.Any, and the referencedtype_urlmust resolve to a message type in the loaded protobuf root. - The application must convert the decoded message to JSON or a plain object through an affected conversion path.
- The crafted input must contain deeply nested
Anyvalues that are expanded during conversion.
Workarounds
Avoid converting untrusted protobuf messages containing google.protobuf.Any values to JSON with affected versions. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reject or limit messages with deeply nested Any payloads at an outer protocol boundary where feasible, avoid JSON conversion of untrusted Any values, or isolate message conversion in a process that can be safely restarted.
Affected software
Click a technology to see all vulnerabilities affecting it.
| Platform | Package | Vulnerable versions | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm package | protobufjs | < 7.6.1, >= 8.0.0, < 8.4.1 | 7.6.1, 8.4.1 |
References
- CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H- Weakness (CWE)
CWE-674- Platform
- npm
- Package
protobufjs- Disclosed
- 15.06.2026
- Updated
- 11.10.2026 10:22
Sources and licenses
OSV / GitHub Advisory Database - GHSA-wcpc-wj8m-hjx6 - CC BY 4.0
Vulnerability history: protobufjs
All published vulnerabilities of this package (npm package), newest first. Shows whether this is a one-off slip or a package that needs watching.
- Total entries
- 17
- First → latest
- 10.2018 07.2026
- Without a fix
- 0
- Exploited in attacks
- 0
Severity breakdown
- Critical 2
- High 6
- Medium 9
Disclosures per year
- 2018: 1
- 2019: 0
- 2020: 0
- 2021: 0
- 2022: 1
- 2023: 1
- 2024: 0
- 2025: 0
- 2026: 14
-
protobufjs: Denial of service through unbounded Any expansion during JSON conversion this entry
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