protobufjs : Schema-derived names can shadow runtime-significant propertiesGHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7
MEDIUMGHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-674 vulnerability in protobufjs. A fix is available for protobufjs — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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-f38q-mgvj-vph7.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 394,803 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
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.
protobufjsnpmprotobufjs-clinpmDescription
Summary
protobufjs accepted certain schema-derived names that could collide with properties used by protobufjs runtime helpers. The known affected names are fields named hasOwnProperty, field or oneof names such as $type when loaded through protobufjs JSON/reflection descriptors, and service methods whose generated helper name is rpcCall.
When affected message or service types were used, protobufjs could read schema-controlled data where it expected an own-property helper, reflected type metadata, or the base RPC helper. This could cause deterministic exceptions or recursive calls in affected decode post-checks, verification, object conversion, reflected JSON serialization, or protobufjs RPC helper invocation.
Impact
An attacker who can provide or influence protobuf schemas or protobufjs JSON descriptors may be able to make affected message or service types unusable, resulting in denial of service for the affected processing path.
Applications using only trusted schemas are affected only if those schemas contain one of the problematic names and the application reaches the affected API path.
The issue is not known to allow code execution by itself.
Preconditions
- The application must use an affected protobufjs version.
- The application must load or use a schema or protobufjs JSON descriptor containing one of the problematic names:
- a field named
hasOwnProperty, - a field or oneof named
$typethrough protobufjs JSON/reflection descriptor input, - or a service method whose generated helper name is
rpcCall.
- a field named
- The application must reach the affected API path for that name: required-field decode post-checks,
verify, ortoObjectforhasOwnProperty; reflected message JSON serialization for$type; or protobufjs RPC service invocation forrpcCall.
Workarounds
Do not load protobuf schemas or protobufjs JSON descriptors from untrusted sources with affected versions. If untrusted schemas or descriptors must be accepted, validate schema-derived field, oneof, and service method names before loading and reject the problematic names described above.
Applications using trusted schemas can avoid the issue by renaming affected fields or service methods, or by avoiding the affected API path.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦npm | protobufjs | all versions | 7.6.3npm install protobufjs@7.6.3 |
| 📦npm | protobufjs-cli | ≥ 2.0.0&&< 2.5.1 | 2.5.1npm install protobufjs-cli@2.5.1 |
| 📦npm | protobufjs-cli | all versions | 1.3.3npm install protobufjs-cli@1.3.3 |
| 📦npm | protobufjs | ≥ 8.0.0&&< 8.6.0 | 8.6.0npm install protobufjs@8.6.0 |
Affected Products
protobufjsprotobufjs_projectprotobufjs-cliprotobufjs_projectDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
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 7.6.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
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 Hat rates this issue as having Low impact for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI bootc images. Although protobufjs is present as a transitive dependency, the vulnerable parsing path is not exercised in normal product operation.
No specific mitigation required for unaffected runtime paths.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f38q-mgvj-vph7 in your dependencies?
Find it across npm, including transitive dependencies.