Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
HDF5 1.8.20 has a reported stack buffer overflow while reading HDF5 data. An application that processes a malicious or malformed HDF5 file could crash and may face memory-corruption risk. The public sources do not provide a CVSS score, confirmed patch, or evidence of active exploitation.
Executive priority
Treat this as a targeted data-ingestion risk. Prioritize environments that automatically process external HDF5 datasets, but avoid emergency escalation unless vendor guidance or internal exposure shows reachable untrusted parsing.
Technical view
CVE-2018-13874 describes a stack-based buffer overflow in HDF HDF5 1.8.20, in H5FD_sec2_read within H5FDsec2.c, related to HDmemset. The source bundle links public proof-of-concept material, but does not document exploitation in the wild, affected downstream products, or remediation details.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely where servers, desktop tools, data pipelines, or research workflows use HDF5 1.8.20 to parse files from users, partners, uploads, or shared datasets.
Exploitation context
The bundle references public PoC material, so malformed HDF5 input is a credible testing artifact. CISA KEV is false, and no cited source confirms active exploitation.
Researcher notes
The record is sparse: no CVSS, CWE, CPE, downstream product list, or patch metadata is provided. Analysis should focus on confirming embedded HDF5 versions and whether untrusted HDF5 content reaches the vulnerable read path.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory software and libraries using HDF5 1.8.20.
- Check HDF Group or product-vendor guidance for fixed supported versions.
- Avoid processing untrusted HDF5 files until guidance is applied.
- Sandbox or isolate HDF5 parsing workloads that handle external files.
- Limit file upload and dataset ingestion paths to trusted sources.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether HDF5 1.8.20 appears in SBOMs or build manifests.
- Map applications that parse HDF5 files from external or semi-trusted sources.
- Review crash telemetry for H5FD_sec2_read, H5FDsec2.c, or HDmemset references.
- Verify vendor advisories before declaring a specific fixed version.
- Track whether public PoC references match your exposed parser paths.
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-2018-13874 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/tree/master/hdf5CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
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.