5.3

CVE-2026-44288: protobufjs_project protobufjs Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding

CVSS: 5.3v3.1MediumAnalyzed
AliasesCGA-2j53-vggv-2vh7CGA-4c4r-8rg9-hm6fCGA-72ff-qm8h-57c6
Published 13-05-2026Last modified 13-05-2026
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-44288 is a medium (CVSS 5.3) Improper Handling of Unicode Encoding vulnerability in protobufjs_project protobufjs. EPSS estimates a 0.33% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 24.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Overall risk
21/100
0100
Low · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
5.3/10
010
Medium · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
0.33%
0%100%
Low · +0.02 pp in 30 days
KEVNot listedIn no KEV catalog
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits0No public exploits recorded

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 0 · Related 1
CGA-9GM5-V5F4-465P

Timeline

  1. 13-05-2026
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 13-05-2026
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

protobufjs compiles protobuf definitions into JavaScript (JS) functions. Prior to 7.5.6 and 8.0.2, protobufjs includes a minimal UTF-8 decoder that accepted overlong UTF-8 byte sequences and decoded them to their canonical characters instead of replacing them. An attacker who can provide protobuf binary data decoded through the affected UTF-8 path may be able to bypass application-level checks that inspect raw bytes before protobuf string decoding. For example, bytes that do not contain certain ASCII characters could decode to strings containing those characters. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.6 and 8.0.2.

CVSS metrics

5 scores · 5 sources · 1 version

EPSS trend

Probability

0.33%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

24%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

+0.02 pp

From 0.30% on 20-09-2026

20-09-202620-10-2026
EPSS score
0.33%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs

Not in any of the 3 tracked catalogs.

Public exploits

0 found

No public exploits indexed.

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Chainguard25 products
  • cadence-web< 4.0.15-r2
  • gemini-cli< 0.44.0-r0
  • homepage< 1.13.1-r3
  • kibana-8.19< 8.19.15-r0
  • kibana-8.19-bitnami< 8.19.15-r0
Wolfi4 products
  • kubeflow-centraldashboard< 1.10.0-r21
  • pulumi-language-nodejs< 3.237.0-r1
  • renovate< 43.170.15-r2
  • vitess-23< 23.0.4-r5
@protobufjs1 product
  • utf8< 1.1.1
Npm1 product
  • protobufjs< 7.5.6 | ≥ 8.0.0, < 8.0.2
Protobufjs1 product
Protobufjs_project1 product

6 vendors · 33 products

References

6 links