Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2018-11206 is a memory-read flaw in HDF5 1.10.2. If an affected application processes hostile HDF5 data, it could crash or expose information. The business risk is highest for services, pipelines, or research tools that accept externally supplied HDF5 files.
Executive priority
Treat as a targeted remediation item for data-processing systems. It is not marked as known exploited, but public PoC material and possible remote crash or disclosure justify timely patching where untrusted HDF5 content is processed.
Technical view
The issue is an out-of-bounds read in H5O_fill_new_decode and H5O_fill_old_decode in H5Ofill.c in the HDF5 1.10.2 library. Public references include fuzzing/PoC repositories and a Debian LTS hdf5 security update. No CVSS, CWE, or complete affected-product matrix is provided in the bundle.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where applications use HDF5 1.10.2, or vulnerable downstream hdf5 packages, to parse HDF5 content from users, partners, uploads, archives, or automated data feeds.
Exploitation context
The bundle says the flaw could allow remote denial of service or information disclosure. It includes public PoC/fuzzing references, but CISA KEV is false and no source in the bundle states active exploitation.
Researcher notes
Evidence is limited: the bundle provides the vulnerable functions, affected library version, impact statement, PoC/fuzzing references, and Debian LTS update. It does not provide CVSS, CWE, exploit-in-the-wild evidence, or a complete upstream fixed-version statement.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory applications and packages that use HDF5 or libhdf5.
- Upgrade hdf5 using vendor or distribution security guidance.
- Debian users should review DLA 3522-1 for fixed packages.
- Restrict processing of untrusted HDF5 files until patched.
- Isolate HDF5 parsing workloads from sensitive services where practical.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether deployed HDF5 versions include 1.10.2.
- Check OS package versions against vendor security advisories.
- Identify services that accept HDF5 files from external sources.
- Review crash logs around HDF5 parsing workflows.
- Verify patched environments no longer report vulnerable hdf5 packages.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-2018-11206 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://github.com/TeamSeri0us/pocs/blob/master/hdf5/README2.mdCVE reference
- https://github.com/Twi1ight/fuzzing-pocs/tree/master/hdf5CVE reference
- [debian-lts-announce] 20230809 [SECURITY] [DLA 3522-1] hdf5 security updateCVE reference · mailing-list
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.