HDF5 integer underflow in Fletcher32 filter leads to massive out-of-bounds read

H5Z__filter_fletcher32 in H5Zfletcher32.c in HDF5 prior to 2.3.0 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.

Source published

5 Aug 2026 23:15:09 UTC

Source modified

6 Oct 2026 20:32:52 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

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CVSS 4.0 · 6.8 CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N