CVE-2021-22569

HIGH7.5EPSS 0.47%

A potential Denial of Service issue in protobuf-java

Published: 1/7/2022Modified: 2/4/2026
Also known as:GHSA-wrvw-hg22-4m67CGA-p22x-xfxm-vx6h

Description

## Summary A potential Denial of Service issue in protobuf-java was discovered in the parsing procedure for binary data. Reporter: [OSS-Fuzz](https://github.com/google/oss-fuzz) Affected versions: All versions of Java Protobufs (including Kotlin and JRuby) prior to the versions listed below. Protobuf "javalite" users (typically Android) are not affected. ## Severity [CVE-2021-22569](https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2021-22569) **High** - CVSS Score: 7.5, An implementation weakness in how unknown fields are parsed in Java. A small (~800 KB) malicious payload can occupy the parser for several minutes by creating large numbers of short-lived objects that cause frequent, repeated GC pauses. ## Proof of Concept For reproduction details, please refer to the oss-fuzz issue that identifies the specific inputs that exercise this parsing weakness. ## Remediation and Mitigation Please update to the latest available versions of the following packages: - protobuf-java (3.16.1, 3.18.2, 3.19.2) - protobuf-kotlin (3.18.2, 3.19.2) - google-protobuf [JRuby gem only] (3.19.2)

Affected packages (5)

CVSS scores

SourceVersionSeverityVector
osvCVSS 3.1HIGH7.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References (9)