November 13, 2026 Follow Egret
CVE-2026-120754 · CVE record: PUBLISHED

Uninitialized Heap Memory Disclosure via Truncated Chunk in HDF5 Scale-Offset Filter

The HDF Group Scale-Offset Filter

HDF5 through 2.2.0 contains an uninitialized memory read vulnerability in H5Z__filter_scaleoffset() in src/H5Zscaleoffset.c. The decode path validates reads against the allocated size of the chunk buffer rather than the number of bytes actually read from the file. Because H5D__chunk_lock() deliberately sizes filtered chunk buffers to the larger of the stored and unfiltered chunk sizes and fills only the stored bytes, a truncated chunk passes these bounds checks and is decompressed from the uninitialized remainder of the allocation. Unrelated heap contents are then returned to the caller as dataset data. Because the reads remain within the allocation, the issue is not detected by AddressSanitizer. An attacker who can get a user or application to read a dataset from a crafted HDF5 file can cause disclosure of process memory. This issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2026-19029.

Exploitation evidence

Not listed in the latest downloaded CISA KEV catalog. This does not establish an absence of exploitation.

KEV checked 13 Nov 2026, 00:20 Jerusalem · Original catalog ↗

Reported products and versions

The HDF Group / Scale-Offset Filter

Default status: unaffected

  • affected: < 2.3.0

Fixes and workarounds

No explicit solution text in the downloaded CVE record. Consult the vendor advisory; unaffected version ranges are shown above as reported, not inferred as a patch recommendation.

Sources and related reporting

CVE Program record ↗ · Download tracked evidence as JSON

Monitored source mentions

Shared CVE identifiers link source mentions; they do not establish that the reports describe the same incident.

Observed change timeline

History begins when Egret first downloads each source. It is not the complete upstream CVE history.

12 Nov 2026, 18:20 Jerusalem · EPSS observation updated

Stored EPSS snapshot at this observation.

{
  "date": "2026-11-12",
  "epss": 0.00145,
  "percentile": 0.03854
}
11 Nov 2026, 12:20 Jerusalem · EPSS observation updated

Stored EPSS snapshot at this observation.

{
  "date": "2026-11-10",
  "epss": 0.00145,
  "percentile": 0.03825
}
11 Nov 2026, 12:20 Jerusalem · CVE Program record changed

Stored CNA snapshot at this observation.

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                "id": "CVE-2026-120754",
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