---
id: CVE-2022-46280
title: Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in PQS pFormat
summary: Open Babel has uninitialized pointer dereference in PQS pFormat
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cwe:
  - CWE-824
vendor: openbabel
product: openbabel
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - openbabel < 3.2.0
patched:
  - openbabel 3.2.0
published: '2026-07-01'
updated: '2026-07-01'
source: GHSA
sourceUrl: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8qxc-57hf-hc9j'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/security/advisories/GHSA-8qxc-57hf-hc9j
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-46280'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel/commit/2a7d2cda8bd47daade2e555e34b69651a2e132ef
  - url: 'https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2022-1670'
  - url: 'https://www.talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2022-1670'
  - url: 'https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8qxc-57hf-hc9j'
tags:
  - ghsa
  - pip
epss: 0.00828
epssPercentile: 0.5563
ingestedAt: '2026-07-01T18:15:20.544Z'
---

## Overview

### Summary

A memory-safety vulnerability in Open Babel's PQS parser caused an
uninitialized pointer dereference when reading a crafted input file.

### Details

The flaw was in the `pFormat` handling of the PQS reader. A malformed
input caused the parser to dereference a format pointer that had
never been initialized.

### 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.

## Affected packages

- `openbabel < 3.2.0`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `openbabel 3.2.0`