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VulnerabilityPublished

CVE-2026-120689: HDF5 through 2.2.0 contains an uncontrolled recursion vulnerability in H5B__iterate_helper() in

Source GCVE Database

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Authoritative record:CVE-2026-120689· Medium 4.3

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.3 Medium : upgrade to 2.3.0 when convenient.

Data as of 2 Nov 2026, 23:15 UTC

CVSS 4.0 base score
4.3Medium
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Thin evidence

One scorer or none
CVSS scores by source
CNA (HDFG)CVSS 4.04.3
Patch
Available – fixed in 2.3.0
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/E:U

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 2 Nov 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 2 Nov 2026.

What to do

Upgrade HDF5 to 2.3.0.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
The HDF GroupHDF5Affected
  • <2.3.0
Fixed in
  • 2.3.0

AI-suggested

If you cannot patch yet, avoid opening untrusted or suspicious HDF5 files to mitigate risk.

Description

HDF5 versions through 2.2.0 have an uncontrolled recursion vulnerability in the H5B__iterate_helper() function. This occurs when iterating a version 1 B-tree where a crafted file can cause a child node to point back to itself or a previously cached node, bypassing level checks and causing unbounded recursion. Triggering this vulnerability via functions like H5Gget_info() or H5Gget_num_objs() leads to stack exhaustion and application crash, resulting in denial of service.

References

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