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Status: Unpatched vulnerability in transitive dependency
Affected Versions: protobuf <= 6.33.4
Patched Version: None (as of January 2025)
Severity: Medium (DoS via RecursionError)

A denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability exists in google.protobuf.json_format.ParseDict() in Python, where the max_recursion_depth limit can be bypassed when parsing nested google.protobuf.Any messages. Due to missing recursion depth accounting inside the internal Any-handling logic, an attacker can supply deeply nested Any structures that bypass the intended recursion limit, eventually exhausting Python's recursion stack and causing a RecursionError.

• Direct Impact: None - Loclean does not use google.protobuf.json_format.ParseDict() or google.protobuf.Any messages in its core codebase.
• Indirect Impact: Low - protobuf is only present as a transitive dependency of the optional cloud extra (via google-generativeai).
• Affected Users: Only users who install loclean[cloud] or loclean[all] are affected.

1. Use C++ Implementation (Recommended): The vulnerability only affects the Pure-Python backend. The C++ implementation (default for PyPI wheels) is not affected. Ensure you're using the C++ implementation by setting:

   export PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=cpp

2. Avoid Cloud Extra: If you don't need cloud API support, avoid installing the cloud extra:

   # Instead of: pip install loclean[cloud]
   pip install loclean  # Core library only

3. Input Validation: If you're using google-generativeai directly, avoid parsing untrusted JSON/protobuf data from external sources.

We are monitoring upstream protobuf releases for a patch. Once a patched version is available, we will update dependencies accordingly.

Last Updated: January 24, 2025