CVE-2022-3171 - CVE House
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Status published Medium CVE-2022-3171

Memory handling vulnerability in ProtocolBuffers Java core and lite

Vulnerability Description

A parsing issue with binary data in protobuf-java core and lite versions prior to 3.21.7, 3.20.3, 3.19.6 and 3.16.3 can lead to a denial of service attack. Inputs containing multiple instances of non-repeated embedded messages with repeated or unknown fields causes objects to be converted back-n-forth between mutable and immutable forms, resulting in potentially long garbage collection pauses. We recommend updating to the versions mentioned above.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

References

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Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Protocolbuffers
Vulnerable Versions:
3.21.7, 3.20.3, 3.19.6, 3.16.3

Timeline

Official Publish: October 12th, 2022
Last Modified: April 21st, 2025
Added to House: July 21st, 2026

CVSS Vectors

V3: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-20

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application
Initial Access
T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter
Execution
T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation
Privilege Escalation
T1213 Data from Information Repositories
Collection
T1565.002 Stored Data Manipulation
Impact