CVE-2026-104635Uncontrolled recursion in elixir-protobuf/protobuf JSON decoding of self-referential messages
Updated under an hour ago ()
Does this affect you?
It affects elixir-protobuf protobuf. Add what you run to find out whether that includes you.
EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.39%, higher than 31% of scored CVEs.
Do this next
Free account, 1 product
Uncontrolled Recursion vulnerability in Protobuf.JSON.Decode in elixir-protobuf protobuf allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to crash the decoding process via a deeply nested JSON document. Any application that decodes attacker-supplied JSON with Protobuf.JSON.decode/3, Protobuf.JSON.decode!/3, or Protobuf.JSON.from_decoded/3 into a schema that contains a self-referential or cyclic message type is affected. In lib/protobuf/json/decode.ex, the embedded-message clause of decode_singular/3 recurses into internal_from_json_data/3 once per nesting level without incrementing or checking the decoder's depth counter. The depth guard increase_depth_and_maybe_throw/1 covers only the Google.Protobuf.ListValue and Google.Protobuf.Struct clauses, so the recursion_limit option has no effect on user-defined message types. Each nesting level allocates a stack frame and heap objects, and a sufficiently deep document exhausts the memory of the decoding process. Confidentiality and integrity are not affected. This issue affects protobuf: from 0.8.0 before 0.17.1.
- CVSS
- 8.2 HIGH (v4.0, CNA)CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-674
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- 0.39% (percentile 31)
- Assigned by
- EEF
- NVD analysis
- Deferred
- Record last updated
- Oct 15, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
Affected products
elixir-protobuf protobuf elixir-protobuf:protobuf | from 0.8.0 before 0.17.1 | CNA record |
References
- https://github.com/elixir-protobuf/protobuf/security/advisories/GHSA-m497-c2h9-rvw6related, vendor-advisory
- https://cna.erlef.org/cves/CVE-2026-104635.htmlrelated
- https://osv.dev/vulnerability/EEF-CVE-2026-104635related
- https://github.com/elixir-protobuf/protobuf/commit/b0a1d4eaffaf50012fa71a8e931a47cf252d0370related
- https://github.com/elixir-protobuf/protobuf/commit/e9432ad1c4099511905353cebcececa3a1f7c3ffpatch
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.