#VU12153 Heap-based buffer overflow in HDF5 - CVE-2016-4331

Vulnerability identifier: #VU12153

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 5.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-4331

CWE-ID: CWE-122

Exploitation vector: Local

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
HDF5
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: HDF Group

Description
The vulnerability allows a local attacker to gain elevated privileges on the target system.

The weakness exists due to library's failure to ensure that the precision is within the bounds of the size when decoding data out of a dataset encoded with the H5Z_NBIT decoding. A local attacker can trigger heap-based buffer overflow and execute arbitrary code with root privileges.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may result in system compromise.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

HDF5: 1.8.16

---

External links
https://www.talosintelligence.com/reports/TALOS-2016-0177/

---

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.