Vulnerability in Google Protobuf-Python

CVE-2025-4565

Any project that uses Protobuf Pure-Python backend to parse untrusted Protocol Buffers data containing an arbitrary number of recursive groups, recursive messages or a series of SGROUP tags can be corrupted by exceeding the Python recursion limit. This can result in a Denial of service by crashing the application with a RecursionError. We recommend upgrading to version =>6.31.1 or beyond commit 17838beda2943d08b8a9d4df5b68f5f04f26d901

EPSS: 0.003 (16.6th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2025-4565?
CVE-2025-4565 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Google Protobuf-Python, classified under Uncontrolled Recursion. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2025-06-16.
How severe is CVE-2025-4565?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.
Is CVE-2025-4565 known to be exploited?
5 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.