CVE-2021-22569

Publication date 10 January 2022

Last updated 25 August 2025

Ubuntu priority

Cvss 3 Severity Score

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.

Status

Show unmaintained releases

Package	Ubuntu Release	Status
protobuf	23.04 lunar	Not affected
	22.10 kinetic	Fixed 3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.10.1
	22.04 LTS jammy	Fixed 3.12.4-1ubuntu7.22.04.1
	21.10 impish	Ignored end of life
	20.04 LTS focal	Fixed 3.6.1.3-2ubuntu5.2
	18.04 LTS bionic	Fixed 3.0.0-9.1ubuntu1.1
	16.04 LTS xenial	Ignored changes too intrusive
	14.04 LTS trusty	Fixed 2.5.0-9ubuntu1+esm1

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Patch details

For informational purposes only. We recommend not to cherry-pick updates. How can I get the fixes?

Package	Patch details
protobuf	Upstream: https://github.com/protocolbuffers/protobuf/pull/9371/commits/5ea2bdf6d7483d64a6b02fcf00ee51fbfb80e847

Severity score breakdown

Parameter	Value
Base score	5.5 · Medium
Attack vector	Local
Attack complexity	Low
Privileges required	None
User interaction	Required
Scope	Unchanged
Confidentiality	None
Integrity impact	None
Availability impact	High
Vector	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

USN-5945-1
Protocol Buffers vulnerabilities
13 March 2023