[Snyk] Upgrade com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java from 3.5.1 to 4.36.0

[mhill-os]

Snyk has created this PR to upgrade com.google.protobuf:protobuf-java from 3.5.1 to 4.36.0.

ℹ️ Keep your dependencies up-to-date. This makes it easier to fix existing vulnerabilities and to more quickly identify and fix newly disclosed vulnerabilities when they affect your project.

---

• The recommended version is 191 versions ahead of your current version.

• The recommended version was released 21 days ago.

Issues fixed by the recommended upgrade:

	Issue	Score	Exploit Maturity
	Denial of Service (DoS) SNYK-JAVA-COMGOOGLEPROTOBUF-3167772	153	No Known Exploit
	Stack-based Buffer Overflow SNYK-JAVA-COMGOOGLEPROTOBUF-8055227	153	No Known Exploit
	Denial of Service (DoS) SNYK-JAVA-COMGOOGLEPROTOBUF-2331703	153	No Known Exploit
	Denial of Service (DoS) SNYK-JAVA-COMGOOGLEPROTOBUF-3040284	153	No Known Exploit

Breaking Change Risk

Notice: This assessment is enhanced by AI.

---

Important

• Warning: This PR contains a major version upgrade, and may be a breaking change.
• Check the changes in this PR to ensure they won't cause issues with your project.
• This PR was automatically created by Snyk using the credentials of a real user.
• Max score is 1000. Note that the real score may have changed since the PR was raised.

---

Note: You are seeing this because you or someone else with access to this repository has authorized Snyk to open upgrade PRs.

For more information:

• 🧐 View latest project report
• 📜 Customise PR templates
• 🛠 Adjust upgrade PR settings
• 🔕 Ignore this dependency or unsubscribe from future upgrade PRs

[mhill-os]

This is a major version upgrade from 3.x to 4.x, which introduces significant breaking changes and breaks binary compatibility that was maintained for 8 years in the v3 series. This upgrade is known to cause a split in the Java ecosystem, where transitive dependencies may pull in conflicting versions of Protobuf.

Key Breaking Changes:

• API and Class Name Changes: Core classes have been renamed or removed. For example, code referencing GeneratedMessageV3 will no longer compile and must be updated to use its new equivalent, GeneratedMessage. This requires code refactoring.
• Runtime and Gencode Compatibility: While Protobuf aims to allow code generated with a late v3 protoc compiler to run on a v4 runtime, this does not cover manual code written against the Protobuf API. [8] Relying on this compatibility can be complex and may introduce subtle runtime issues if not all dependencies are aligned. [7, 8]
• Minimum Java Version: Major version upgrades typically raise the minimum required Java version. You must verify that your project's Java runtime meets the new requirement.

Source: GitHub Discussion on Migration Path, Protobuf Version Support Policy

Recommendation: This upgrade requires significant effort. You must regenerate all Protobuf-generated code using a protoc compiler that matches the new runtime version. Additionally, you will need to audit and refactor any application code that directly interacts with the protobuf-java library's APIs. Thoroughly test your application to ensure all transitive dependencies are compatible with protobuf-java v4.

Notice 🤖: This content was augmented using artificial intelligence. AI-generated content may contain errors and should be reviewed for accuracy before use.

[mhill-os]

✅ Snyk checks have passed. No issues have been found so far.

Status	Scan Engine	Critical	High	Medium	Low	Total (0)
✅	Open Source Security	0	0	0	0	0 issues
✅	Licenses	0	0	0	0	0 issues

💻 Catch issues earlier using the plugins for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Eclipse.