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.
Weakness
The product does not properly control the amount of recursion that takes place, consuming excessive resources, such as allocated memory or the program stack.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | devel | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | esm-infra/bionic | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | esm-infra/focal | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | jammy | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | noble | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | questing | * |
| Protobuf | Ubuntu | upstream | * |