CVE-2026-17573: CWE-415 Double free in The HDF Group HDF5
A double free vulnerability was discovered in the HDF5 library. Processing a crafted HDF5 file containing an oversized chunk size field via h5repack may cause the application to abort due to a double free.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
CVE-2026-17573 describes a double free vulnerability in the HDF5 library. Specifically, when h5repack processes a specially crafted HDF5 file containing an oversized chunk size field, it may trigger a double free condition leading to application abort. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-415. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates local attack vector with low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and high impact on availability. No remediation or patch information is currently available.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation causes the h5repack application to abort, resulting in denial of service. There is no indication of code execution or data corruption beyond the application crash. The impact is limited to availability disruption of the affected tool.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until a fix is available, avoid processing untrusted or malformed HDF5 files with h5repack to reduce risk of application crashes.
CVE-2026-17573: CWE-415 Double free in The HDF Group HDF5
Description
A double free vulnerability was discovered in the HDF5 library. Processing a crafted HDF5 file containing an oversized chunk size field via h5repack may cause the application to abort due to a double free.
CVSS v4.0
Score 4.0medium
Affected software
The HDF Group
HDF5
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
CVE-2026-17573 describes a double free vulnerability in the HDF5 library. Specifically, when h5repack processes a specially crafted HDF5 file containing an oversized chunk size field, it may trigger a double free condition leading to application abort. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-415. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates local attack vector with low complexity, no privileges required, user interaction needed, and high impact on availability. No remediation or patch information is currently available.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation causes the h5repack application to abort, resulting in denial of service. There is no indication of code execution or data corruption beyond the application crash. The impact is limited to availability disruption of the affected tool.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until a fix is available, avoid processing untrusted or malformed HDF5 files with h5repack to reduce risk of application crashes.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- HDFG
- Date Reserved
- 2026-07-27T15:07:06.180Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6a677b449c2644c7f85127fd
Added to database: 07/27/2026, 15:37:40 UTC
Last enriched: 07/30/2026, 01:09:55 UTC
Last updated: 09/10/2026, 20:02:52 UTC
Views: 60
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