How severe is GHSA-685m-2w69-288q?

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q has a CVSS score of 7.5/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-685m-2w69-288q?

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q affects the following packages: protobufjs (npm), protobufjs (npm). Ecosystems affected: npm.

How do I fix GHSA-685m-2w69-288q?

Update protobufjs to 7.5.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-685m-2w69-288q is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-685m-2w69-288q in my npm dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for protobufjs, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate GHSA-685m-2w69-288q if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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.

Is GHSA-685m-2w69-288q actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-685m-2w69-288q yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-685m-2w69-288q?

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 51th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-685m-2w69-288q?

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q is classified as CWE-674 (CWE-674), CWE-606 (CWE-606). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-685m-2w69-288q published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q was published on May 12, 2026 and was last updated on September 10, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

📦

📦 npm

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

protobuf.js: Denial of service through unbounded protobuf recursionGHSA-685m-2w69-288q

HIGH

GHSA-685m-2w69-288q is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-674 vulnerability in protobufjs. A fix is available for protobufjs — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2026-44289

Published

May 12, 2026

Updated

Sep 10, 2026

Affected

2 pkgs

Patched

2 / 2

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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 GHSA-685m-2w69-288q.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs51th percentile — riskier than 51% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

2 pkgs affected

How broadly this vulnerability is actually deployed: weekly install volume shows current usage, and reverse-dependency count shows how many other packages break if it stays unpatched.

6Kother npm packages depend on this — each one inherits the vulnerability until it's patched upstream

protobufjsnpm

123.0Mdownloads / week

Description

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.

Affected Packages

2 total 2 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
📦npm	`protobufjs`	all versions	7.5.6`npm install protobufjs@7.5.6`
📦npm	`protobufjs`	≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.0.2	8.0.2`npm install protobufjs@8.0.2`

Affected Products

1 product · 2 configurations

Application

protobufjsprotobufjs_project

≥ 8.0.0 && < 8.0.2

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for protobufjs, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update protobufjs to 7.5.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-685m-2w69-288q 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.

Fixing This On Your OS

If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.

Red HatImportant

An uncontrolled recursion vulnerability was discovered in protobufjs which can allow a remote attacker to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) via stack exhaustion. Red Hat products bundling vulnerable instances of this npm package (specifically versions prior to 7.5.6 and 8.0.2) are affected.

Workaround published by Red Hat

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.

Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-685m-2w69-288q (CC BY 4.0)

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.2	`ansible-automation-platform/automation-portal:1784622951`	RHSA-2026:42815
Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4	`rhoai/odh-dashboard-rhel9:1787347991`	RHSA-2026:60520
Red Hat OpenShift AI 3.4	`rhoai/odh-mod-arch-eval-hub-rhel9:1791861214`	RHSA-2026:84734

Frequently Asked Questions

## 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 a