CVE-2026-0994: protobuf affected by a JSON recursion depth bypass
(updated )
A denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability exists in google.protobuf.json_format.ParseDict() in Python, where the max_recursion_depth limit can be bypassed when parsing nested google.protobuf.Any messages.
Due to missing recursion depth accounting inside the internal Any-handling logic, an attacker can supply deeply nested Any structures that bypass the intended recursion limit, eventually exhausting Python’s recursion stack and causing a RecursionError.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-7gcm-g887-7qv7
- github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf
- github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/5ebddcb1bcbe51d1fe323baa145e85f4f23128cf
- github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/commit/d2b001626d137c62dfee6c88c87324102531868b
- github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/issues/25070
- github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/pull/25239
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-0994
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