CVE-2024-7254 | Stack overflow in Protocol Buffers Java Lite

Any project that parses untrusted Protocol Buffers data containing an arbitrary number of nested groups / series of SGROUP tags can corrupted by exceeding the stack limit i.e. StackOverflow. Parsing nested groups as unknown fields with DiscardUnknownFieldsParser or Java Protobuf Lite parser, or against Protobuf map fields, creates unbounded recursions that can be abused by an attacker.

Published: 2024-09-19 Last update: 2025-09-26 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-7254 is rated Moderate Risk (40.6/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2024-7254

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.30% 0.06% -0.25%
2 2025-11-18 0.06% 0.30% +0.25%
3 2025-09-08 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (20 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-7254

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.7 4.0 HIGH
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N)
No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N)
No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N)
No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:N)
No integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:H)
High availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N)
No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:N)
No integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N)
No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X)
Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X)
Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X)
Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X)
Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X)
Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X)
Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X)
Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X)
Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X)
Not evaluated.
 — — [email protected]
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-7254

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2024-7254

GHSA-735f-pc8j-v9w8 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: maven — protobuf-java has potential Denial of Service issue

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-7254

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2024-7254: 1 source package rows (protobuf); 5 state rows across 5 repos (3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 5. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2024-7254
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-7254 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (protobuf), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): open 3, resolved 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-7254
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-7254
suse high CVE-2024-7254 severity important: SUSE including 293 source package names (0.3.2-1.2:libprotobuf25_1_0-25.1-150600.16.7.1, 0.3.32-3.4:libprotobuf25_1_0-25.1-150600.16.7.1, …), 539 product×package rows across 120 product lines (Container containers/lmcache-vllm-openai, Container containers/milvus, … (120 product lines)): Fixed 304, Known Affected 231, First Fixed 2, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-7254/
ubuntu medium CVE-2024-7254 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (protobuf), 9 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 8, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-7254

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-7254

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
google protobuf < 3.25.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
google protobuf >= 4.0.0, < 4.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
google protobuf >= 4.28.0, < 4.28.2 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf:*:*:*:*:*:ruby:*:*
google protobuf-java < 3.25.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-java >= 4.0.0, < 4.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-java >= 4.28.0, < 4.28.2 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-java:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-javalite < 3.25.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-javalite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-javalite >= 4.0.0, < 4.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-javalite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-javalite >= 4.28.0, < 4.28.2 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-javalite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin < 3.25.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin >= 4.0.0, < 4.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin >= 4.28.0, < 4.28.2 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin-lite < 3.25.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin-lite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin-lite >= 4.0.0, < 4.27.5 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin-lite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
google protobuf-kotlin-lite >= 4.28.0, <= 4.28.2 cpe:2.3:a:google:protobuf-kotlin-lite:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp active_iq_unified_manager — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:active_iq_unified_manager:-:*:*:*:*:linux:*:*
netapp active_iq_unified_manager — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:active_iq_unified_manager:-:*:*:*:*:vmware_vsphere:*:*
netapp active_iq_unified_manager — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:active_iq_unified_manager:-:*:*:*:*:windows:*:*
netapp bluexp — cpe:2.3:a:netapp:bluexp:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
netapp ontap_tools 10 cpe:2.3:a:netapp:ontap_tools:10:*:*:*:*:vmware_vsphere:*:*

References for CVE-2024-7254

cvelogic Threat Intelligence