Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-44291

HighRCE

Published: 13 May 2026

Published
13 May 2026
Modified
14 May 2026
KEV Added
Patch
CVSS Score v3.1 8.1 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.0050 39.0th percentile
Risk Priority 55 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-44291 is a high-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Protobufjs Project Protobufjs. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 39.0th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability details

protobufjs compiles protobuf definitions into JavaScript (JS) functions. Prior to 7.5.6 and 8.0.2, protobufjs used plain objects with inherited prototypes for internal type lookup tables used by generated encode and decode functions. If Object.prototype had already been polluted, those lookup…

more

tables could resolve attacker-controlled inherited properties as valid protobuf type information. This could cause attacker-controlled strings to be emitted into generated JavaScript code. This vulnerability is fixed in 7.5.6 and 8.0.2.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
T1059.007 JavaScript Execution
Adversaries may abuse various implementations of JavaScript for execution.
Why these techniques?

Prototype pollution leads to attacker-controlled JS emitted and executed via generated encode/decode functions (CWE-94), directly enabling public app exploitation and JS interpreter abuse.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-41242Same product: Protobufjs Project Protobufjs
CVE-2026-44293Same product: Protobufjs Project Protobufjs
CVE-2026-44290Same product: Protobufjs Project Protobufjs
CVE-2026-45740Same product: Protobufjs Project Protobufjs
CVE-2026-44289Same product: Protobufjs Project Protobufjs
CVE-2026-44295Same vendor: Protobufjs Project
CVE-2025-26260Shared CWE-94
CVE-2026-26954Shared CWE-94
CVE-2026-41507Shared CWE-94
CVE-2025-12735Shared CWE-94

Affected Assets

protobufjs project
protobufjs
≤ 7.5.6 · 8.0.0 — 8.0.2

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-94

Makes persistent code injection into loaded programs impossible when the executable image itself resides on hardware-protected read-only media.

addresses: CWE-94

Dynamically generated code can be produced and executed inside the isolated chamber, preventing host compromise from code-injection payloads.

addresses: CWE-94

Validates inputs used in dynamic code generation to block injected directives.

addresses: CWE-94

Directly prevents execution of attacker-supplied code written into data memory regions.

References