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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2022-1941 json

Out of Memory issue in ProtocolBuffers for cpp and python

published 4y ago modified 4mo ago also GHSA-8gq9-2x98-w8hf , PYSEC-2026-899 , EUVD-2022-6743

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.5%
EPSS 1.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 74%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A parsing vulnerability for the MessageSet type in the ProtocolBuffers versions prior to and including 3.16.1, 3.17.3, 3.18.2, 3.19.4, 3.20.1 and 3.21.5 for protobuf-cpp, and versions prior to and including 3.16.1, 3.17.3, 3.18.2, 3.19.4, 3.20.1 and 4.21.5 for protobuf-python can lead to out of memory failures. A specially crafted message with multiple key-value per elements creates parsing issues, and can lead to a Denial of Service against services receiving unsanitized input. We recommend upgrading to versions 3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 3.21.6 for protobuf-cpp and 3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 4.21.6 for protobuf-python. Versions for 3.16 and 3.17 are no longer updated.

Patch / fix

  • pypi protobuf 3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 4.21.6
  • google protobuf-cpp 3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 3.21.6
  • google protobuf-python 3.18.3, 3.19.5, 3.20.2, 4.21.6
  • protobuf Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.21.9-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2022-1941

  • protobuf Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 3.0.0-9.1ubuntu1.1
  • protobuf Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 3.6.1.3-2ubuntu5.2
  • protobuf Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1
  • protobuf Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 2.6.1-1.3ubuntu0.1~esm2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2022-1941

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • protobuf RHEL 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • protobuf-lite RHEL 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • python3-protobuf RHEL 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • protobuf-compiler RHEL 9 3.14.0-16.el9

red hat advisories RHSA-2025:7138

  • protobuf SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1, SLE Installer Updates 15 SP1, SLES for SAP 15 SP1 +2 more 3.9.2-150100.8.3.3
  • python-psutil SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1, Enterprise Storage 7, SLES for SAP 15 SP2 +5 more 5.9.1-150100.6.6.3
  • python-requests SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1, Enterprise Storage 7, SLES for SAP 15 SP2 +5 more 2.25.1-150100.6.13.3
  • grpc SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 1.25.0-150100.3.3.3
  • python-avro SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP2 +1 more 1.11.0-150100.3.3.3
  • python-knack SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 +3 more 0.9.0-150100.3.7.3
  • python-pytest SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP2, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP1 3.10.1-150000.7.5.1
  • azure-cli-core SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP5, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP4, SLE Module for Public Cloud 15 SP3 +3 more 2.17.1-150100.6.18.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:2783-2SUSE-SU-2023:2783-1SUSE-SU-2022:3922-1

  • protobuf AlmaLinux 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • protobuf-lite AlmaLinux 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • python3-protobuf AlmaLinux 9 3.14.0-16.el9
  • protobuf-compiler AlmaLinux 9 3.14.0-16.el9

almalinux advisories ALSA-2025:7138

  • protobuf Rocky Linux 9 3.14.0-16.el9

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2025:7138

  • mysql CBL-Mariner 2.0, Azure Linux 3.0 8.0.40-1
  • protobuf CBL-Mariner 2.0 3.17.3-3
  • pytorch CBL-Mariner 2.0 2.0.0-7
  • protobuf Azure Linux 3.0 25.3-1
  • pytorch Azure Linux 3.0 2.2.2-2
  • tensorflow Azure Linux 3.0 2.16.1-1
  • keras Azure Linux 3.0 3.1.1-1
  • python-tensorboard Azure Linux 3.0 2.16.2-1

azure linux advisories AZL-13172AZL-13174AZL-25856AZL-35018AZL-35125AZL-35147

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

  • protobuf Arch Linux 21.6-1
  • python-protobuf Arch Linux 21.6-1

arch linux advisories AVG-2825

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2022-1941 updated cvss 6.5

protobuf: message parsing vulnerability in ProtocolBuffers

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) protobuf 3.14.0-16.el9, protobuf-lite 3.14.0-16.el9, python3-protobuf 3.14.0-16.el9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 9) protobuf-compiler 3.14.0-16.el9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:7138
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2 openresty openresty Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2 aap-cloud-metrics-collector-container, ansible-automation-platform-25/ee-minimal-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-25/lightspeed-rhel8, ansible-automation-platform-24/ee-supported-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-24/ansible-builder-rhel9, ansible-automation-platform-25/ee-cloud-services-rhel9, +2 more Red Hat Ceph Storage 7 rhceph/ceph-nvmeof-rhel9, rhceph/ceph-nvmeof-cli-rhel9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 protobuf, protobuf-vim, protobuf-java, protobuf-lite, protobuf-emacs, protobuf-python, +3 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 protobuf, protobuf-lite, python3-protobuf, protobuf-compiler Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 fence-virt, fence-virtd, fence-agents, fence-virtd-cpg, fence-virtd-tcp, fence-agents-all, +51 more
    +7 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 protobuf Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift4/baremetal-hardware-event-proxy-rhel8 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.1 protobuf, python3-protobuf Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 protobuf, python3-protobuf Red Hat Quay 3 quay/quay-rhel8 Red Hat Satellite 6 python-grpcio Red Hat Update Infrastructure 4 for Cloud Providers python-grpcio
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
2y ago

Exploit prediction

1.51% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 74% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
OSV 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
GitHub 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
pypi protobuf
<3.18.3
>=3.19.0, <3.19.5
>=3.20.0, <3.20.2
>=4.0.0, <4.21.6
3.18.3
3.19.5
3.20.2
4.21.6

Affected products

  • Google LLC protobuf-cpp
  • Google LLC protobuf-python
  • google protobuf-cpp
  • google protobuf-python

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-1286 Improper Validation of Syntactic Correctness of Input
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.