diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 7eb995b2..96477024 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "opentelemetry-instrumentation-logging==0.63b1",
   "opentelemetry-instrumentation-system-metrics==0.63b1",
   "opentelemetry-semantic-conventions==0.63b1",
-  "protobuf>=6.33.5", # not our direct dep, prevents installing vulnerable proto versions (CVE‑2025‑4565, CVE-2026-0994)
+  "protobuf>=7.35.0", # not our direct dep, prevents installing vulnerable proto versions (CVE‑2025‑4565, CVE-2026-0994)
   "wrapt>=1.0.0",
 ]