CVE-2026-29043
MediumCVSS 5.5Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk12th percentile - higher than 12% of all known CVEs
Summary
HDF5 is software for managing data. In 1.14.1-2 and earlier, an attacker who can control an h5 file parsed by HDF5 can trigger a write-based heap buffer overflow condition in the H5T__ref_mem_setnull method. This can lead to a denial-of-service condition, and potentially further issues such as remote code execution depending on the practical exploitability of the heap overflow against modern operating systems.
Risk Assessment
The heap buffer overflow may cause denial of service and, under favorable conditions, remote code execution, threatening the availability and confidentiality of systems processing HDF5 files.
Recommendation
Update HDF5 to a version later than 1.14.1-2 if available. Avoid processing untrusted h5 files and consider running HDF5 in an isolated environment.
Other vulnerabilities in HDF5
See all- CVE-2026-120689Medium
HDF5 through 2.2.0 contains an uncontrolled recursion vulnerability in H5B__iterate_helper() in src/H5B.c. When iterating a version 1 B-tree, the function does not verify that a child node's level matches the expected level, allowing a crafted HDF5 file to bypass the check and cause unbounded recursion, leading to stack exhaustion and a crash. This can be triggered by calling H5Gget_info() or H5Gget_num_objs() on a group in the crafted file.
- CVE-2017-17509High
In HDF5 version 1.10.1, there is an out of bounds write vulnerability in the function H5G__ent_decode_vec in H5Gcache.c in the libhdf5.a library. For example, using h5dump may crash or have unspecified other impacts when opening a crafted hdf5 file.
- CVE-2016-4333High
The HDF5 1.8.16 library has a vulnerability that allows modification of the loop's index when initializing an array, potentially leading to out-of-bounds access. The value used for space allocation comes from the file, creating a risk of manipulation by an attacker.
- CVE-2016-4332High
The HDF5 library version 1.8.16 fails to check if certain message types support a particular flag, leading to casting the structure to an alternative structure and assigning values to fields not supported by the message type. This can result in code execution under the context of the library.
- CVE-2016-4331High
When decoding data out of a dataset encoded with the H5Z_NBIT decoding, the HDF5 1.8.16 library fails to ensure that the precision is within the bounds of the size, leading to arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2016-4330High
The HDF5 library version 1.8.16 has a flaw in failing to check if the number of dimensions for an array read from the file is within the bounds of the allocated space. This can lead to a heap-based buffer overflow, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution.
- CVE-2026-19029Medium
In HDF5 through version 2.2.0, there is a heap-based buffer over-read in H5Z__filter_scaleoffset() in src/H5Zscaleoffset.c. An attacker can cause a denial of service (application crash) with a crafted HDF5 file. When the stored minimum bits equal the full precision of the datatype, the decoder copies d_nelmts * size bytes from the compressed chunk without checking that the chunk holds that many bytes.
- CVE-2026-106547High
A heap-based buffer overflow in H5VM_array_fill() in src/H5VM.c in HDF5 before 2.2.0. A crafted HDF5 file can cause an application crash and possibly execute arbitrary code when unallocated chunks of a dataset are read and metadata is inconsistent with the buffer's allocated size.
- CVE-2026-92627Medium
HDF5 before version 1.14.2 contains a heap-use-after-free vulnerability in H5T__conv_f_f() in src/H5Tconv.c. When converting a compound datatype containing floating-point members during a dataset read, a temporary buffer allocated with calloc() is freed and subsequently read within the same conversion routine.
- CVE-2026-19028Medium
HDF5 prior to 2.3.0 has a vulnerability in H5Z__filter_fletcher32 that computes the data length to checksum by subtracting the 4-byte trailing checksum size from the input buffer size without checking that the buffer is at least 4 bytes, allowing a size_t underflow. This allows attackers to cause a denial of service (massively out-of-bounds read and application crash in H5_checksum_fletcher32) via a crafted HDF5 file with a Fletcher32-filtered chunk smaller than 4 bytes, triggered via H5Dread, e.g. by the h5ls or h5dump tools.
Original NVD description (English source)
HDF5 is software for managing data. In 1.14.1-2 and earlier, an attacker who can control an h5 file parsed by HDF5 can trigger a write-based heap buffer overflow condition in the H5T__ref_mem_setnull method. This can lead to a denial-of-service condition, and potentially further issues such as remote code execution depending on the practical exploitability of the heap overflow against modern operating systems.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS

