| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
| openbabel | < 3.2.0 | 3.2.0 |
| open babel | ≤ 3.1.1 |
A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's SMILES parser caused a heap buffer overflow when reading a crafted input string.
The flaw was in OBSmilesParser::ParseSmiles. A malformed SMILES
input caused the parser to write past the end of a heap-allocated
buffer.
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.
All releases up to and including 3.1.1.
3.2.0 (released 2026-05-26).
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.
Reported via OSS-Fuzz.
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