Is CVE-2026-17572 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-17572 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2026-17572?

Informational severity, with a CVSS score of 5.5, published 27 July 2026.

Is there a fix for CVE-2026-17572?

No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

How is CVE-2026-17572 attacked?

It is attacked with local access, in a software library.

Am I affected by CVE-2026-17572?

Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2026-17572: The HDF Group HDF5 heap buffer overflow in SOHM list-index deserialization

CVE-2026-17572 · Severity: info · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2026-07-27

HDF5 is a widely used data management library for storing and managing large amounts of complex data. A vulnerability in how the library processes certain file structures allows an attacker to crash applications that open a specially crafted, malicious HDF5 file. This could lead to a denial of service, impacting operations that rely on processing external data files.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-17572 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-17572 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-17572?: Informational severity, with a CVSS score of 5.5, published 27 July 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: The HDF Group HDF5 <= 2.1.1.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-17572?: No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
How is CVE-2026-17572 attacked?: It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-17572?: Check whether anything you run is named in the advisory. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

Technical details

A heap-based buffer overflow exists in the Shared Object Header Message (SOHM) list-index deserialization component of HDF5. The vulnerability is located in the H5SM__cache_list_deserialize and H5SM__cache_list_verify_chksum functions, which fail to validate that the 'num_messages' count from the on-disk index header does not exceed 'list_max'. An attacker can provide a malformed HDF5 file that triggers out-of-bounds heap reads and writes. This requires a user to open the malicious file (User Interaction). The issue affects HDF5 through version 2.1.1 across all platforms.

Affected products

The HDF Group HDF5 <= 2.1.1

Timeline

2026-07-02: disclosed: Issue reported on GitHub
2026-07-27: advisory: NVD publication date

References

https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5/issues/6501

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