🛡️ CVE-2025-10996 — open-babel

🟠 CVSS 8.0 — High ⚠️ Exploit Public CWE-119 NVD
8.0
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Open Babel has heap buffer overflow in SMILES OBSmilesParser::ParseSmiles

Summary

A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's SMILES parser caused a

heap buffer overflow when reading a crafted input string.

Details

The flaw was in OBSmilesParser::ParseSmiles. A malformed SMILES

input caused the parser to write past the end of a heap-allocated

buffer.

Impact

Open Babel is a C++ library and CLI used to read and write chemistry

file formats; it is shipped by Linux distributions and embedded in

services that may parse untrusted input. Triggering this vulnerability

requires the victim to parse a malicious SMILES string with the

obabel tool, the OBConversion API, or any of the language

bindings (Python, Ruby, Java, R, Perl, C#, PHP). SMILES strings are

commonly passed on the command line and through scripted pipelines,

so this primitive is especially reachable.

Affected versions

All releases up to and including 3.1.1.

Patched version

3.2.0 (released 2026-05-26).

Patch

Fix commit: https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/commit/b34cd604

Originally reported as #2831; fixes consolidated in #2913.

A minimized reproducer for this CVE is checked in under

test/files/fuzz_regress/ and is exercised on every CI build under

ASAN+UBSAN by the fuzzregresstest harness.

Credit

Reported via OSS-Fuzz.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality low, integrity low, availability low.

Weakness class

CVE-2025-10996 is classified as CWE-119: Improper Restriction of Operations within Memory Buffer Bounds. A read or write is performed without confirming it stays inside the allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory.

Affected software

CVE-2025-10996 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • open-babel (fixed in 3.1.1)
  • openbabel (fixed in 3.2.0)

Timeline and source

Published on 26 September 2025 and last revised on 17 June 2026. A public exploit is known to exist, which raises the urgency of patching considerably. Record sourced from NVD.

References

github.com
github.com
vuldb.com
vuldb.com
vuldb.com

CVE-2025-10996 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity MEDIUM
CVSS Score 8.0
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
CWE CWE-119
Public Exploit ⚠️ Yes
Source NVD
Published 2025-09-26
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-06-17
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
open-babel — 3.1.1
openbabel — 3.2.0

References

Permissions Required, VDB Entry https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.325924
Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry https://vuldb.com/?id.325924
Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry https://vuldb.com/?submit.654060

Similar Threats

Exploit Protection

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