Open Babel has out-of-bounds write in Gaussian translationVectors[]

Summary

A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's Gaussian output parser
allowed an out-of-bounds write into the translationVectors[] array
when reading a crafted input file.

Details

The Gaussian reader stored periodic-cell translation vectors into a
fixed-size translationVectors[] array. A malformed input could push
more vectors than the array had slots, causing a write past the end
of the array. This is one of five translationVectors[] OOB writes
across formats (Gaussian, MOPAC, MOPAC IN, MSI) reported in the
TALOS 2022 batch.

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 Gaussian output 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/40e85213

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.