A heap-use-after-free vulnerability exists in H5T__conv_f_f() in src/H5Tconv.c in HDF5 before 1.14.2. When converting a compound datatype containing floating-point members during a dataset read, a temporary buffer allocated with calloc() is freed and subsequently read from within the same conversion routine. An attacker who can supply a crafted HDF5 file containing a specially constructed compound datatype can trigger the use-after-free when the file is parsed by an application that reads the affected dataset, such as h5dump. This can result in a crash and, depending on heap layout and allocator behavior, may be exploitable for further memory corruption up to remote code execution.
https://pulsesecurity.co.nz/advisories/hdf5-memory-corruption
Published: 2026-09-16
Updated: 2026-09-16
Base Score: 5.8
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:P
Severity: Medium
Base Score: 7.8
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity: High
Base Score: 4.6
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: Medium