PYSEC-2026-2779
Open Babel has out-of-bounds write in PQS coord_file parser
Quick fix
PYSEC-2026-2779 — openbabel: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.
pip install --upgrade 'openbabel>=3.2.0'Details
### Summary
A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's PQS parser allowed an out-of-bounds write when reading a crafted input file.
### Details
The flaw was in the `coord_file` parsing path of the PQS reader. A malformed coord file specifier caused the parser to write past the end of its destination 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 open a malicious PQS file with the `obabel` tool, the `OBConversion` API, or any of the language bindings (Python, Ruby, Java, R, Perl, C#, PHP).
### 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/2a7d2cda
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 by Cisco TALOS.
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Affected packages
References
- https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/security/advisories/GHSA-f29h-2h58-48r7[WEB]
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-43467[ADVISORY]
- https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/commit/2a7d2cda8bd47daade2e555e34b69651a2e132ef[WEB]
- https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel[PACKAGE]
- https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2022-1671[WEB]
- https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2022-1671[WEB]
- https://pypi.org/project/openbabel[PACKAGE]
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-f29h-2h58-48r7[ADVISORY]