A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's CIF file format parser
allowed an out-of-bounds read when reading a crafted input file.
Details
The flaw was in OpenBabel::transform3d::DescribeAsString. A malformed
symmetry-operation string caused the parser to read past the end of its
internal buffer while formatting the description.
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 open a malicious CIF file with the obabel
tool, the OBConversion API, or any of the language bindings.
A minimized reproducer for this CVE is checked in at
test/files/fuzz_regress/cve-2026-2704.cif and is exercised on every
CI build under ASAN+UBSAN by the fuzzregresstest harness.