CVE-2026-59877
Description
A flaw was found in protobufjs, a JavaScript (JS) library for compiling protobuf definitions. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability by providing a specially crafted .proto schema. This schema, designed to prematurely end an option declaration, can cause the library's parsing functions to loop indefinitely. This leads to a Denial of Service (DoS), making the affected system unresponsive.
Statement
The protobufjs library, used in Red Hat products, is susceptible to a Denial of Service when processing a specially crafted .proto schema. A remote attacker can exploit this by providing a malformed schema, causing an infinite loop during parsing and leading to service unavailability. This is considered Important due to the potential for significant disruption to services that handle external protobuf definitions.
Mitigation
Applications that only encode or decode protobuf messages using trusted schemas are not directly affected. Until patched protobufjs packages (7.6.5 / 8.6.6) are available, do not parse .proto schema text from untrusted sources via parse, Root.load, or Root.loadSync. Where untrusted schema input cannot be avoided, isolate .proto parsing in a dedicated worker thread or subprocess and enforce an explicit timeout so a non-returning parse cannot block the main event loop. Optional process-manager controls (for example systemd restart-on-failure, or CPU/cgroup limits) may reduce host-level impact or aid recovery for supervised services, but they do not fix the parser bug and are not a substitute for input isolation or applying the update.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 7.5 | 7.5 | 5.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | Low | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | None | None |
| User Interaction | None | None | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | Unchanged | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | None | None | None |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | None |
| Availability Impact | High | High | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Amplification
An infinite loop will cause unexpected consumption of resources, such as CPU cycles or memory. The software's operation may slow down, or cause a long time to respond.
Frequently Asked Questions
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