CVE-2026-48712: protobufjs Denial of Service Vulnerability

{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-wcpc-wj8m-hjx6",
  "modified" : "2026-07-15T22:04:45Z",
  "published" : "2026-06-15T17:30:15Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-48712" ],
  "summary" : "protobufjs: Denial of service through unbounded Any expansion during JSON conversion",
  "details" : "## Summary\n\nprotobufjs 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.\n\nA crafted protobuf binary payload containing deeply nested `Any` values could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during conversion to JSON.\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 message conversion to fail with a stack overflow.\n\nThis 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 })`.\n\nApplications that only decode and re-encode protobuf binary data without converting decoded messages to JSON are not directly affected by this issue.\n\n## Preconditions\n\n* The application must decode protobuf binary data influenced by an attacker.\n* The application schema must include `google.protobuf.Any`, and the referenced `type_url` must resolve to a message type in the loaded protobuf root.\n* The application must convert the decoded message to JSON or a plain object through an affected conversion path.\n* The crafted input must contain deeply nested `Any` values that are expanded during conversion.\n\n## Workarounds\n\nAvoid 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.",
  "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" : "7.6.1"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 7.6.0"
    }
  }, {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "npm",
      "name" : "protobufjs"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "8.0.0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "8.4.1"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 8.4.0"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js/security/advisories/GHSA-wcpc-wj8m-hjx6"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-48712"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/protobufjs/protobuf.js"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-674" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-06-15T17:30:15Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-06-22T18:16:39Z"
  }
}