CVE-2026-45740
ADVISORY - githubSummary
Summary
protobufjs could recurse without a depth limit while expanding nested JSON descriptors through Root.fromJSON() and Namespace.addJSON().
A crafted JSON descriptor with deeply nested namespace definitions could cause the JavaScript call stack to be exhausted during descriptor loading.
Impact
An attacker who can provide JSON descriptors loaded by an application may be able to crash the process or otherwise cause schema loading to fail with a stack overflow.
This affects applications that load JSON descriptors from untrusted sources with affected versions.
Preconditions
- The application must load JSON descriptor data influenced by an attacker.
- The crafted descriptor must contain deeply nested
nestednamespace objects. - The affected
Root.fromJSON()/Namespace.addJSON()descriptor expansion path must process the crafted input.
Workarounds
Avoid loading untrusted protobuf JSON descriptors with affected versions. If immediate upgrade is not possible, reject excessively nested descriptor structures at an outer validation boundary where feasible, or isolate descriptor loading in a process that can be safely restarted.
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Uncontrolled Recursion
Uncontrolled Recursion
GitHub
3.9
CVSS SCORE
5.3medium| Package | Type | OS Name | OS Version | Affected Ranges | Fix Versions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| protobufjs | npm | - | - | <=7.5.7 | 7.5.8 |
| protobufjs | npm | - | - | >=8.0.0,<8.2.0 | 8.2.0 |
CVSS:3 Severity and metrics
The CVSS metrics represent different qualitative aspects of a vulnerability that impact the overall score, as defined by the CVSS Specification.
The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, but the attack is limited at the protocol level to a logically adjacent topology. This can mean an attack must be launched from the same shared physical (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11) or logical (e.g., local IP subnet) network, or from within a secure or otherwise limited administrative domain (e.g., MPLS, secure VPN to an administrative network zone). One example of an Adjacent attack would be an ARP (IPv4) or neighbor discovery (IPv6) flood leading to a denial of service on the local LAN segment (e.g., CVE-2013-6014).
Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success when attacking the vulnerable component.
The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files of the vulnerable system to carry out an attack.
The vulnerable system can be exploited without interaction from any user.
An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
There is no loss of confidentiality.
There is no loss of trust or accuracy within the impacted component.
Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
NIST
3.9