CVE-2026-2705 Open Babel MOL2 File atom.h SetFormalCharge out-of-bounds
Open Babel library contains an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in MOL2 file handling, potentially allowing remote attackers to cause denial of service or execute code.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-2705?
CVE-2026-2705 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Open Babel, published on 19 Feb 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
A vulnerability was detected in Open Babel up to 3.1.1. The impacted element is the function OBAtom::SetFormalCharge in the library include/openbabel/atom.h of the component MOL2 File Handler. The manipulation results in out-of-bounds read. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. The exploit is now public and may be used. The patch is identified as e23a224b8fd9d7c2a7cde9ef4ec6afb4c05aa08a. A patch should be applied to remediate this issue. The project was informed of the problem early through an issue report but has not responded yet.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-2705?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including openbabel. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
openbabel PyPI | All versions | 3.2.0 |
openbabel PyPI | All versions | 3.2.0 |
openbabel PyPI | All versions | 3.2.0 |
Products include Openbabel Open Babel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-2705?
Upgrade openbabel to 3.2.0 or later.
Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.
Is CVE-2026-2705 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-2705 exists.
Other vulnerabilities in Open Babel
- CVE-2022-41793 Open Babel has out-of-bounds write in CSR PadString (title field)
- CVE-2022-42885 Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in GRO residue parser
- CVE-2022-43467 Open Babel has out-of-bounds write in PQS coord_file parser
- CVE-2022-44451 Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in MSI atom parser
- CVE-2022-46280 Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in PQS pFormat
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-2705, GHSA-4w5w-4fhm-q483, PYSEC-2026-2770, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-2705.