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Fencer Intel
high 7.5

CVE-2021-37501 json

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in HDFGroup hdf5-h5dump 1.12.0 through 1.13.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service via h5tools_str_s…

published 3y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2021-24066

cvss
7.5
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.5%
EPSS 1.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in HDFGroup hdf5-h5dump 1.12.0 through 1.13.0 allows attackers to cause a denial of service via h5tools_str_sprint in /hdf5/tools/lib/h5tools_str.c.

Patch / fix

  • hdf5 Debian 14, Debian 13 1.14.5+repack-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2021-37501

  • hdf5 enterprise linux ai 1.5 1.14.6-3.1.el9ai
  • libaec enterprise linux ai 1.5 1.1.3-1.el9ai
  • hdf5-openmpi enterprise linux ai 1.5 1.14.6-3.1.el9ai

red hat advisories RHSA-2025:3801

  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-hpc SLE Module for HPC 12 1.10.11-3.21.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-mvapich2-hpc SLE Module for HPC 12 1.10.11-3.21.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-openmpi1-hpc SLE Module for HPC 12 1.10.11-3.21.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-hpc SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for HPC 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 1.10.11-150400.3.12.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-mpich-hpc SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for HPC 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 1.10.11-150400.3.12.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-mvapich2-hpc SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for HPC 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 1.10.11-150400.3.12.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-openmpi3-hpc SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for HPC 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 1.10.11-150400.3.12.1
  • hdf5_1_10_11-gnu-openmpi4-hpc SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5, SLE Module for HPC 15 SP5, openSUSE Leap 15.5 1.10.11-150400.3.12.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2024:3144-1SUSE-SU-2024:0882-1SUSE-SU-2024:0538-1SUSE-SU-2023:1563-1SUSE-SU-2023:0777-1SUSE-SU-2023:0691-1

  • hdf5 CBL-Mariner 2.0, Azure Linux 3.0 1.12.1-13

azure linux advisories AZL-13349AZL-34796

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Is CVE-2021-37501 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2021-37501 updated cvss 7.5

hdf5: heap buffer overread

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI 1.5 for RHEL 9.4 libaec 1.1.3-1.el9ai, hdf5 1.14.6-3.1.el9ai, hdf5-openmpi 1.14.6-3.1.el9ai
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2025:3801
  • Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.1 hdf5
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
last yr.

Exploit prediction

1.55% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/ST4RF4LL/Something_Found/blob/main/HDF5_v1.13.0_h5dump_heap_overflow.md referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.