Answer in brief
CVE-2026-120758 records a Medium severity (CVSS 5.4) vulnerability in NULL Pointer Dereference in H5HL_unprotect via Corrupted File. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps The HDF Group/HDF5 (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 5.4. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps The HDF Group/HDF5 (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| The HDF Group/HDF5generic | <2.3.0 | 2.3.0 |
Published upstream
Nov 3, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Nov 3, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Nov 3, 2026
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.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.