#VU112882 Uncontrolled Recursion in protobuf - CVE-2025-4565

Vulnerability identifier: #VU112882

Vulnerability risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 6.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2025-4565

CWE-ID: CWE-674

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
protobuf
Other software / Other software solutions

Vendor: Google

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

the vulnerability exists due to uncontrolled recursion when parsing untrusted data containing an arbitrary number of recursive groups, recursive messages or a series of SGROUP tags. A remote attacker send specially crafted input to the application and can perform a denial of service attack. 

Mitigation
Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

protobuf: 4.25.0, 4.25.1, 4.25.2, 4.25.3, 4.25.4, 4.25.5, 4.25.6, 4.25.7, 5.26.0, 5.26.1, 5.27.0, 5.27.1, 5.27.2, 5.27.3, 5.27.4, 5.27.5, 5.28.0, 5.28.1, 5.28.2, 5.28.3, 5.29.0, 5.29.1, 5.29.2, 5.29.3, 5.29.4, 6.30.0, 6.30.1, 6.30.2, 6.31.0

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External links
https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/17838beda2943d08b8a9d4df5b68f5f04f26d901
https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/security/advisories/GHSA-8qvm-5x2c-j2w7

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.