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Hdf5Application · Hdfgroup

CVE-2024-29160

HIGH · 7.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.14.4 or later.
See remediation →
79/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
HDF5 through 1.14.3 contains a heap buffer overflow in H5HG__cache_heap_deserialize, resulting in the corruption of the instruction pointer and causing denial of service or potential code execution.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

HDF5 library versions through 1.14.3 contain a heap buffer overflow vulnerability in the H5HG__cache_heap_deserialize function during heap object deserialization. This allows attackers to corrupt heap memory, leading to instruction pointer corruption, denial of service, and potentially arbitrary code execution.

MitigationUpgrade to HDF5 version 1.14.4 or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, restrict processing to trusted HDF5 files and implement input validation before file parsing.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Hdf5Application
Affected:< 1.14.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check HDF5 version via command line tools
    Run 'h5dump --version' or 'h5ls --version' to display the installed HDF5 library version
    Affected if The version displayed is earlier than 1.14.4
  2. Check HDF5 version via package manager
    On Linux, run 'dpkg -l | grep hdf5' or 'rpm -qa | grep hdf5'; on macOS, run 'brew list hdf5'; record the version string shown
    Affected if The package version number is less than 1.14.4
  3. Check HDF5 library file directly
    Locate the HDF5 shared library (commonly libhdf5.so on Linux or libhdf5.dylib on macOS) and run 'strings libhdf5.so | grep "HDF5"' or check file metadata to identify the version
    Affected if The library version embedded in the file is earlier than 1.14.4
  4. Identify applications using HDF5
    Run 'ldd <executable>' or 'otool -L <executable>' on binaries that may link to HDF5 to confirm they load a vulnerable library version
    Affected if The linked HDF5 library version is earlier than 1.14.4

Your environment is affected if any installed HDF5 library version is below 1.14.4, regardless of how it is deployed.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.14.4 or later
Fixed in 1.14.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to HDF5 version 1.14.4 or later to patch the vulnerability. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, restrict processing to trusted HDF5 files and implement input validation before file parsing.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.14.4

  1. Check the current installed version of HDF5 using 'h5dump --version' or by checking your package manager
  2. Backup your data files and note any custom HDF5 configurations
  3. Upgrade HDF5 to version 1.14.4 or later using your package manager (e.g., 'apt-get install libhdf5-dev' on Debian/Ubuntu, 'yum install hdf5-devel' on RHEL/CentOS, or 'brew install hdf5' on macOS)
  4. Alternatively, compile from source: download hdf5-1.14.4.tar.gz from www.hdfgroup.org, extract, run './configure --prefix=/usr/local', 'make', 'make install'
  5. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking 'h5dump --version' shows 1.14.4 or later
  6. Recompile any applications that link against HDF5 to ensure they use the updated library
  7. Test your applications and workflows to confirm the buffer overflow is resolved and no regressions exist
Caveat Patch releases typically maintain backward compatibility, but test your applications after upgrading as a precaution

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Hdf5 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing5.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $2,970
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-29160 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data