CVE-2021-22569

Denial of Service of protobuf-java parsing procedure

HIGH 7.5

At a glance

Source: NVD
EPSS: EPSS 1.67 % · percentile 77 (2026-10-28)
State: PUBLISHED
Published: 2022-01-07 00:00 UTC
Updated: 2025-04-21 13:57 UTC
Assigner: Google
NVD status: Modified

Description

An issue in protobuf-java allowed the interleaving of com.google.protobuf.UnknownFieldSet fields in such a way that would be processed out of order. A small malicious payload can occupy the parser for several minutes by creating large numbers of short-lived objects that cause frequent, repeated pauses. We recommend upgrading libraries beyond the vulnerable versions.

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-696 — Incorrect Behavior Order

References

Scores

Version	Score	Vector	Scored by
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	Google
CVSS 3.1	HIGH 7.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	NVD · cve-coordination@google.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1	MEDIUM 5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)
CVSS 2.0	MEDIUM 4.3	AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P	NVD · nvd@nist.gov (Primary)

Advisories

GHSA-wrvw-hg22-4m67 — A potential Denial of Service issue in protobuf-java

European references

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2022-0729
GCVE · GCVE-0-2021-22569

CERT-FR advisories

CERTFR-2026-AVI-1165 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0958 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0556 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits VMware · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0500 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans VMware Tanzu · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2026-AVI-0249 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2024-AVI-1081 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2023-AVI-0701 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans Splunk · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2023-AVI-0362 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2023-AVI-0325 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits Oracle · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2022-AVI-928 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans les produits IBM · cert.ssi.gouv.fr
CERTFR-2022-AVI-363 — Multiples vulnérabilités dans Oracle Database Server · cert.ssi.gouv.fr

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

cpe:2.3:a:google:google-protobuf:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:* < 3.19.2
cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* < 3.16.1
cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 3.18.0 < 3.18.2
cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 3.19.0 < 3.19.2
cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* < 3.18.2
cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* ≥ 3.19.0 < 3.19.2
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_console:1.9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function:1.15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_network_repository_function:1.15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:communications_cloud_native_core_policy:1.15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:spatial_and_graph_mapviewer:19c:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:oracle:spatial_and_graph_mapviewer:21c:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Affected products

Product	Versions
Google LLC · protobuf-java	affected unspecified < 3.16.1 ; affected unspecified < 3.18.2 ; affected unspecified < 3.19.2
Google LLC · protobuf-kotlin	affected unspecified < 3.18.2 ; affected unspecified < 3.19.2
Google LLC · google-protobuf [JRuby Gem]	affected unspecified < 3.19.2

Sources

Source	Licence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)	CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)	FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVD	ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
CERT-FR (ANSSI)	Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds	Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD