CVE-2023-24535 — protobuf
HIGHCVE-2023-24535 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Out-of-bounds Read vulnerability in google.golang.org/protobuf. A fix is available for google.golang.org/protobuf — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Panic when parsing invalid messages in google.golang.org/protobuf
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-24535.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
google.golang.org/protobufReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Parsing invalid messages can panic. Parsing a text-format message which contains a potential number consisting of a minus sign, one or more characters of whitespace, and no further input will cause a panic.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | google.golang.org/protobuf | ≥ 1.29.0&&< 1.29.1 | 1.29.1go get google.golang.org/protobuf@v1.29.1 |
Affected Products
protobufprotobufDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for google.golang.org/protobuf, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update google.golang.org/protobuf to 1.29.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-24535 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Stop feeding it untrusted input: reject or quarantine files and payloads from unverified sources until you can upgrade, restrict accepted formats to the ones you actually need, and run the parsing or decoding step in a least-privileged sandbox or short-lived worker so a crash or corrupted read cannot reach the rest of the process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-24535 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.