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Fencer Intel
medium 5.5

CVE-2026-120758 json

NULL Pointer Dereference in H5HL_unprotect via Corrupted File

published 6d ago modified 6d ago also EUVD-2026-116017

cvss
5.5
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

HDF5 through 2.2.0 contains a NULL pointer dereference vulnerability in H5HL_unprotect() in src/H5HL.c. H5HL_protect() pins a single metadata cache entry for a local heap, either the heap prefix or the separate data block, and H5HL_unprotect() unpins it on the final unprotect. When the metadata cache destroys a corrupted local heap entry, H5HL__prfx_dest() unlinks it from the heap by setting heap->prfx or heap->dblk to NULL. A crafted HDF5 file can therefore reach H5HL_unprotect() with no cached object to unpin, and the function passes the NULL pointer to H5AC_unpin_entry(). This causes an assertion failure in debug builds and a NULL pointer dereference and crash in release builds. An attacker who can get a user or application to open and traverse a malicious file can cause a denial of service.

Patch / fix

Is CVE-2026-120758 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-2026-120758 updated cvss 5.5

hdf5: hdf5: Denial of Service via NULL pointer dereference

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI (RHEL AI) 3 hdf5 Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13 (Queens) hdf5
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Hardened Images hdf5 2.2.0-0.1.5.hum1, java-hdf5 2.2.0-0.1.5.hum1, hdf5-mpich 2.2.0-0.1.5.hum1, hdf5-openmpi 2.2.0-0.1.5.hum1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:94898

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
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
6d ago

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 5.4 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:P
CNA 4.0 5.4 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:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 3.1 5.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

  • The HDF Group HDF5

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.