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OpenAdvisories
High · 8.2 CVE-2026-54451 EUVD-2026-82368GHSA-rv48-qqj5-crxg

Elixir protobuf: Unbounded recursion depth in embedded-message decoding

Published Sep 17, 2026 · Updated Sep 21, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

Elixir protobuf is a pure Elixir implementation of Google Protobuf. From 0.8.0 until 0.16.1, services that decode attacker-controlled protobuf bytes with Protobuf.Decoder can be taken offline when the schema contains a self-referential or cyclic message type. In lib/protobuf/decoder.ex, Protobuf.Decoder.value_for_field/3 handles an embedded?: true field by recursively entering the decode / build_message / handle_value / value_for_field call chain without enforcing a nesting-depth limit. Deeply nested embedded fields retain non-tail recursive frames, allowing a comparatively small request to consume substantial CPU and memory, pin a BEAM scheduler, and exhaust the node. This issue is fixed in version 0.16.1.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
elixir-protobuf protobuf >= 0.8.0, < 0.16.1 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS elixir No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS elixir No fix yet —
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS elixir No fix yet —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
Hex protobuf >= 0.8.0, < 0.16.1 0.16.1 GHSA-rv48-qqj5-crxg

References