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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-44289: protobufjs protobuf.js · Uncontrolled Recursion

Affects protobufjs protobuf.jsSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High : upgrade to 8.0.2 or 7.5.6 soon.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.5High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 50% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch
Available – fixed in 8.0.2, 7.5.6
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 13 May 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

What to do

Upgrade protobuf.js to 8.0.2 or 7.5.6; protobufjs/protobuf.js to 7.5.6.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
protobufjsprotobuf.jsAffected
  • >=8.0.0 <8.0.2
Fixed in
  • 8.0.2
protobufjsprotobuf.jsAffected
  • <7.5.6
Fixed in
  • 7.5.6
npmprotobufjs/protobuf.jspkg:npm/protobufjs/protobuf.jsOther threatsAffected
  • <7.5.6
Fixed in
  • 7.5.6

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A fix is available in protobufjs versions 7.5.6 and 8.0.2. Users should upgrade to these or later versions to remediate the vulnerability. If upgrading immediately is not feasible, avoid decoding untrusted protobuf binary data, reject excessively nested messages at protocol boundaries, or isolate protobuf decoding in a separate process that can be safely restarted. Red Hat advisories provide additional guidance and confirm the availability of fixes.

Description

protobufjs compiles protobuf definitions into JavaScript (JS) functions. Prior to 7.5.6 and 8.0.2, protobufjs could recurse without a depth limit while decoding nested protobuf data. This affected both skipping unknown group fields and generated decoding of nested message fields. A crafted protobuf binary payload could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during decoding. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.6 and 8.0.2.

References

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