Summary
Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in MSI atom parser
A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's MSI parser caused an
uninitialized pointer dereference when reading a crafted input file.
Details
The flaw was in the atom handling of the MSI reader. A malformed
record caused the parser to dereference an atom pointer that had
never been initialized.
Affected versions
All releases up to and including 3.1.1.
Patched version
3.2.0 (released 2026-05-26).
Credit
Reported by Cisco TALOS.
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 MSI file with the obabel
tool, the OBConversion API, or any of the language bindings (Python,
Ruby, Java, R, Perl, C#, PHP).
CVE-2022-44451 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (High). The vector is requires local access, no privileges required, and user interaction required. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (3.2.0); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Fix commit: https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/commit/fa9a2d9a
A minimized reproducer for this CVE is checked in undertest/files/fuzz_regress/ and is exercised on every CI build under
ASAN+UBSAN by the fuzzregresstest harness.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2022-44451? CVE-2022-44451 is a high-severity security vulnerability in openbabel (pip), affecting versions < 3.2.0. It is fixed in 3.2.0.
- How severe is CVE-2022-44451? CVE-2022-44451 has a CVSS score of 7.8 (High). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of openbabel are affected by CVE-2022-44451? openbabel (pip) versions < 3.2.0 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2022-44451? Yes. CVE-2022-44451 is fixed in 3.2.0. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2022-44451 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-44451 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2022-44451 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2022-44451? Upgrade
openbabelto 3.2.0 or later.