CVE-2026-44289: Protobufjs Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
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CVSS 7.5
CWE-674
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-44289 is a HIGH (CVSS 7.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion) affecting Protobufjs libraries in the npm ecosystem. The issue involves denial of service through unbounded protobuf recursion. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 7.5.6, 8.0.2.

CVE-2026-44289 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-44289
GHSA Identifier GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 7.5
CWE Classification CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion
Affected Product Protobufjs
Package Ecosystem npm
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 7.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required None (PR:N)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2026-44289

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Protobufjs dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

protobufjs fixed: 7.5.6 
npm install protobufjs@7.5.6
protobufjs fixed: 8.0.2 
npm install protobufjs@8.0.2
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

npm ls protobufjs

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Node.js application is affected by CVE-2026-44289, inspect your project dependencies using npm:

npm ls protobufjs

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Protobufjs in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 7.5.6), your application is affected.

Note: The npm ls protobufjs command inspects dependencies declared in your package.json and lockfile; it does not perform automated runtime dynamic scanning.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion, where the product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack. In Protobufjs, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

## Summary 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. ## Impact An attacker who can provide protobuf binary data decoded by an application may be able to crash the process or otherwise cause decoding to fail with a stack overflow. This affects applications that decode untrusted protobuf binary input with affected versions. ## Preconditions - The application must decode protobuf binary data influenced by an attacker. - The crafted input must contain deeply nested protobuf structures, such as nested group tags or nested message fields. - The affected decoder path must process the crafted input. ## Workarounds Avoid decoding untrusted protobuf binary data with affected versions. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reject excessively nested messages at an outer protocol boundary where feasible, or isolate protobuf decoding in a process that can be safely restarted.

CVE-2026-44289 Affected Protobufjs Versions

2 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
7.5.68.0.2
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
protobufjs
npm/protobufjs
npm
< 7.5.6
7.5.6
protobufjs
npm/protobufjs
npm
≥ 8.0.0
< 8.0.2
8.0.2

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/security/advisories/GHSA-685m-2w69-288q
NVD — CVE-2026-44289 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44289
Protobufjs Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js
Protobufjs Release RELEASE
https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/releases/tag/protobufjs-v7.5.6
Protobufjs Release RELEASE
https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/releases/tag/protobufjs-v8.0.2

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-44289?
CVE-2026-44289 is a security vulnerability in Protobufjs involving Denial of service through unbounded protobuf recursion under CWE-674: Uncontrolled Recursion.
Which Protobufjs versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 7.5.6, 8.0.2 across affected packages: protobufjs.
What version fixes CVE-2026-44289?
Upgrading to 7.5.6, 8.0.2 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is protobufjs affected?
Yes, protobufjs is affected in releases prior to 7.5.6, 8.0.2. Upgrade your dependency to 7.5.6, 8.0.2 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-44289?
CVE-2026-44289 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-44289?
CVE-2026-44289 is classified under CWE-674: 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.).
How can I check npm dependencies for CVE-2026-44289?
Run the dependency tree command: 'npm ls protobufjs'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-685m-2w69-288q",
  "modified" : "2026-05-14T20:35:08Z",
  "published" : "2026-05-12T15:01:05Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-44289" ],
  "summary" : "protobuf.js: Denial of service through unbounded protobuf recursion",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nprotobufjs 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.\n\nA crafted protobuf binary payload could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during decoding.\n\n## Impact\n\nAn attacker who can provide protobuf binary data decoded by an application may be able to crash the process or otherwise cause decoding to fail with a stack overflow.\n\nThis affects applications that decode untrusted protobuf binary input with affected versions.\n\n## Preconditions\n\n- The application must decode protobuf binary data influenced by an attacker.\n- The crafted input must contain deeply nested protobuf structures, such as nested group tags or nested message fields.\n- The affected decoder path must process the crafted input.\n\n## Workarounds\n\nAvoid decoding untrusted protobuf binary data with affected versions. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reject excessively nested messages at an outer protocol boundary where feasible, or isolate protobuf decoding in a process that can be safely restarted.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "protobufjs"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "7.5.6"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 7.5.5"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "protobufjs"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "8.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.0.2"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 8.0.1"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/security/advisories/GHSA-685m-2w69-288q"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44289"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/releases/tag/protobufjs-v7.5.6"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/releases/tag/protobufjs-v8.0.2"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-674" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-05-12T15:01:05Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-05-13T16:16:55Z"
  }
}