CVE-2022-46292

Executive Summary

CVE-2022-46292 is a critical vulnerability affecting Open Babel 3.1.1 and the master commit 530dbfa3, specifically within the MOPAC file format parser's Unit Cell Translation section. The flaw is a multiple out-of-bounds write condition in the translationVectors parsing functionality, which can be triggered by a specially-crafted malformed file, leading to arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 9.8, indicating critical severity, and allows an attacker to achieve full system compromise via a malicious file delivered to a target running the vulnerable software. Organizations using Open Babel for chemical informatics, molecular modeling, or file format conversions are at risk, and the lack of an available patch elevates the urgency for defensive measures.

Technical Analysis

The vulnerability resides in the translationVectors parsing functionality in Open Babel, which processes the Unit Cell Translation section of MOPAC-format files. MOPAC is a widely used semi-empirical quantum chemistry program, and its file format is supported by Open Babel for conversion and analysis. The parser attempts to read translation vector data from the input file without adequately validating the number of elements against the allocated buffer size, resulting in out-of-bounds write conditions.

When Open Babel parses a MOPAC file, it processes the translationVectors directive, which defines lattice translation vectors for periodic systems. The parsing code does not impose a sufficient bound on the quantity of vector components being read relative to the memory buffer allocated for storing them. A malformed file can specify an excessive number of translation vector entries or include vector components that exceed the expected dimensionality, causing the parser to write beyond the bounds of the allocated memory buffer.

This out-of-bounds write can corrupt adjacent memory structures, including heap metadata, function pointers, or other data structures in the process's address space. An attacker controlling the memory layout can leverage this corruption to redirect control flow, typically by overwriting a return address, a virtual function table pointer, or a structured exception handler. This enables arbitrary code execution within the context of the Open Babel process. The vulnerability affects multiple supported formats, suggesting the parsing logic shares a common code path across distinct file formats, increasing the attack surface.

The exact function names and memory layout details are not publicly documented in the NVD description, and insufficient technical detail is available to pinpoint the precise affected routine. However, the vulnerability class is well understood: an unchecked array write based on attacker-controlled input length or index values. The multiple out-of-bounds write nature indicates the flaw manifests at several parsing branches, potentially allowing the attacker to choose from multiple corruption primitives.

Exploitation Scenarios

1. Reconnaissance / Target Identification

The attacker identifies organizations or individuals using Open Babel in their workflow. This includes research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, chemical vendors, and software platforms that accept chemical file uploads for conversion or analysis (e.g., web-based molecular viewers, batch conversion tools, or computational chemistry pipelines). Attackers may scan for exposed services, but the most likely attack vector is social engineering or phishing — sending a malicious .mop file to a researcher, or uploading a crafted file to a web application that processes user-supplied chemical files. Given the CVSS vector includes PR:N (no privileges required) and UI:R (user interaction required), the attacker needs to convince the target to open or process the file.

2. Triggering the Flaw

The attacker crafts a MOPAC-format file containing a benign chemical structure that passes initial parsing, but includes a corrupted or oversized translationVectors section. Specifically, the file declares more translation vectors than the parser's buffer can accommodate, or specifies vector component counts that exceed the internal data structure's dimensions. When the victim opens this file — either directly via a desktop client or by uploading it to a web service — Open Babel's parser reads the translationVectors values and writes them into an undersized heap buffer, causing an out-of-bounds write.

3. Payload / Execution Method

At the vulnerability-class level, the attacker manipulates the out-of-bounds write to corrupt adjacent heap allocations. This is typically achieved by grooming the heap — pre-allocating attacker-controlled data structures adjacent to the vulnerable buffer so that the overwritten bytes land on a sensitive target (e.g., a function pointer, a size field, or a heap metadata chunk header). Once a critical pointer is corrupted, the attacker triggers its use — for example, by continuing parsing to invoke a function that dereferences the overwritten pointer. This redirects execution to shellcode or a ROP (Return-Oriented Programming) chain placed within the same file. No public PoC exists, so this attack chain is inferred from the vulnerability class; the exact heap layout and overwrite offsets would require reverse engineering of the binary.

4. Post-Exploitation Impact

Successful exploitation yields arbitrary code execution in the context of the Open Babel process. If Open Babel runs as a privileged service (e.g., a root-level daemon processing uploaded files), the attacker gains high-privilege code execution. In a desktop scenario, the attacker compromises the user's session, potentially installing malware, exfiltrating data, or pivoting to other systems. Since the process handles structured chemical data, the attacker could also tamper with scientific data, corrupting research outputs or manipulating molecular structures for downstream computational pipelines.

Impact Assessment

The CVSS score of 9.8 (Critical) classifies this as an urgent issue. The vector breakdown indicates:

• Attack Vector (AV:N): Network-exploitable; the malicious file can be delivered over a network.
• Attack Complexity (AC:L): Low — no special conditions required beyond user opening the file.
• Privileges Required (PR:N): None — any unprivileged user can trigger exploitation.
• User Interaction (UI:R): Required — the victim must open or process the crafted file.
• Confidentiality/Integrity/Availability (C:H/I:H/A:H): Full impact on all three security objectives.

Business Impact:

• Research Institutions: Loss of proprietary molecular data, intellectual property theft, and corruption of scientific publications.
• Pharmaceutical Companies: Compromise of drug discovery pipelines, exposure of proprietary compound libraries, and potential regulatory non-compliance.
• Software Vendors: If Open Babel is embedded as a library, the vulnerability propagates to downstream products, requiring re-mediation across multiple customer deployments.
• Web Platforms: Sites accepting chemical file uploads become vectors for server-side compromise, risking customer data and platform integrity.

Blast Radius:

The affected software is MOPAC file format support in Open Babel 3.1.1 and the master commit. Since the issue is described as affecting "multiple supported formats," the shared parsing code extends the exposure to any format that reuses the translation vector parsing logic. The EPSS score of 0.00804 (53.3rd percentile of exploited CVEs) suggests moderate likelihood of exploitation in the wild, with an unpatched status increasing the risk over time.

Detection Guidance

Sigma Rule

title: CVE-2022-46292 Open Babel MOPAC Translation Vector Parsing Exploitation Attempt
id: 7b4f0c8e-2d5a-4f6b-9a3e-1c8d2e4f5a6b
status: experimental
description: Detects process anomalies in Open Babel when parsing MOPAC files with excessive translation vector entries, indicating a potential exploit attempt for CVE-2022-46292.
references:
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-46292
author: Valtersit Threat Intelligence
date: 2025/01/24
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
    definition: 'Requires Sysmon or equivalent process creation logging with command line'
detection:
    selection:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\babel.exe'
            - '\obabel.exe'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '.mop'
            - '.MOP'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - '-c'
            - '--convert'
    condition: selection
level: medium

YARA Rule

rule CVE_2022_46292_OpenBabel_Malformed_MOPAC {
    meta:
        author = "Valtersit Threat Intelligence"
        description = "Detects malformed MOPAC files exploiting translation vector parsing out-of-bounds write in Open Babel"
        reference = "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-46292"
        date = "2025-01-24"
        threat_severity = "critical"
        cve_id = "CVE-2022-46292"
    strings:
        $mopac_header = "MOPAC" ascii wide nocase
        $trans_vectors = "translationVectors" ascii wide nocase
        $lattice = "Lattice" ascii wide nocase
        $tv_patt1 = { 74 72 61 6E 73 6C 61 74 69 6F 6E 56 65 63 74 6F 72 73 } // "translationVectors"
        $tv_patt2 = { 54 52 41 4E 53 4C 41 54 49 4F 4E 56 45 43 54 4F 52 53 } // "TRANSLATIONVECTORS"
        $repeat_marker = { 2E 2E 2E } // "..." potential repetition marker
    condition:
        uint16(0) == 0x4F4D and // "MO" magic check for MOPAC
        ($mopac_header or $tv_patt1 or $tv_patt2) and
        (#trans_vectors > 0) and
        filesize < 5MB
}

Suricata IDS Rule

alert http any any -> any any (msg:"ET EXPLOIT CVE-2022-46292 Open Babel MOPAC translationVectors Malformed File Download"; flow:established,to_client; file_data; content:"translationVectors"; nocase; content:"MOPAC"; within:200; classtype:attempted-user; sid:2025024; rev:1; reference:cve,2022-46292;)

alert tcp any any -> any any (msg:"ET EXPLOIT CVE-2022-46292 Open Babel MOPAC File Transfer Detection"; flow:established; content:"translationVectors"; nocase; content:"!MOPAC!"; distance:0; within:500; classtype:attempted-user; sid:2025025; rev:1; reference:cve,2022-46292;)

Elastic Detection

detector:
    name: "Open Babel MOPAC Translation Vector Parsing Exploitation"
    description: "Searches for anomalous Open Babel process behavior or crash indicators consistent with CVE-2022-46292"
    tags:
        - "CVE-2022-46292"
        - "OpenBabel"
        - "MOPAC"
        - "critical"
    queries:
        process_crash:
            query: process.name:("babel.exe" OR "obabel.exe") AND process.args:("*.mop" OR "*.MOP") AND event.type:"process_terminated"
        memory_error:
            query: process.name:("babel.exe" OR "obabel.exe") AND process.args:("*.mop" OR "*.MOP") AND winlog.event_id:1001 AND winlog.provider_name:"Application Error" AND winlog.message:*"access violation"*
        file_upload:
            query: (process.name:("babel.exe" OR "obabel.exe") OR ((process.name:"httpd.exe" OR process.name:"nginx.exe" OR process.name:"apache.exe") AND event.action:"upload")) AND file.name:"*.mop" AND event.outcome:"success"
    threshold: 1 or more hits within 5 minutes

Splunk SPL Query

index="windows" OR index="syslog" 
  (Image="*babel.exe" OR Image="*obabel.exe" OR process_path="*/babel" OR process_path="*/obabel") 
  (CommandLine="*.mop*" OR CommandLine="*.MOP*") 
  | eval mop_parse = if(CommandLine LIKE "%convert%" OR CommandLine LIKE "%-c%", "high_risk", "medium_risk")
  | table _time, host, user, Image, CommandLine, mop_parse
  | lookup nvd_cve_lookup CVE_ID AS "CVE-2022-46292" OUTPUT Severity AS cve_severity
  | where cve_severity="Critical" OR mop_parse="high_risk"

# Alternative: Detect segmentation faults in Open Babel processes
index="linux" sourcetype="syslog" 
  "segfault" AND ("babel" OR "obabel") 
  | rex field=_raw "babel\[(?<pid>\d+)\]"
  | table _time, host, pid, _raw

Wazuh OSSEC Rule

<group name="open_babel_cve_2022_46292,">
  <rule id="100501" level="15">
    <decoded_as>json</decoded_as>
    <field name="program">open_babel</field>
    <field name="action">parse_error</field>
    <field name="file_ext">\.mop$</field>
    <description>Open Babel MOPAC parsing error - potential CVE-2022-46292 exploitation attempt</description>
    <group>os_linux,os_windows,exploit_attempt,cve_2022_46292</group>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1203</id>
    </mitre>
    <options>no_full_log</options>
    <alert>always</alert>
  </rule>

  <rule id="100502" level="15" frequency="5" timeframe="300">
    <if_matched_sid>100501</if_matched_sid>
    <description>Repeated Open Babel MOPAC parse errors - active CVE-2022-46292 attack in progress</description>
    <group>os_linux,os_windows,exploit_attempt,cve_2022_46292</group>
    <mitre>
      <id>T1203</id>
    </mitre>
  </rule>
</group>

Mitigation & Patch Guidance

Patch Confidence: 0/4 — UNPATCHED

No official patch evidence exists from any tracked source for CVE-2022-46292. The vendor has not released a fixed version, and no patch commits were identified in the master branch history beyond the vulnerable commit 530dbfa3. Organizations must assume the vulnerability remains exploitable.

1. Immediate Mitigations:

• Do not process untrusted MOPAC files or any chemical file format containing translation vector data until a patch is available.
• Restrict user access to Open Babel executables; remove write permissions in directories where the binary is stored to prevent binary replacement.
• If Open Babel is used in a web service, implement a sandboxed environment (e.g., Docker container with no host filesystem access, seccomp filters, reduced privileges) to contain any process-level compromise.
• Deploy a file-type validation layer that rejects files with suspicious translationVectors sections (excessive vector counts, abnormal line lengths) before they reach Open Babel.
• Enable ASLR, DEP, and SEHOP on Windows systems; on Linux, enforce non-executable stack/heap (-z noexecstack) when compiling custom builds.
• Isolate Open Babel processes using seccomp-bpf or AppArmor/SELinux confinement.

2. Patch / Upgrade Steps:

• Monitor Open Babel's official repository (https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel) and security advisory channels for a release containing a fix; no fixed version exists at this time.
• Until a patch is released, evaluate alternative chemical file conversion tools that do not share the vulnerable parsing code.
• If using a downstream product with embedded Open Babel, contact the vendor, referencing CVE-2022-46292 to request a patched redistribution.

3. Long-Term Hardening:

• Implement a vulnerability management workflow that automatically tracks NVD entries for Open Babel and prioritizes critical-scoring CVEs for rapid assessment.
• Require code review and fuzzing of file parsing components for any chemistry-related software adopted in the environment.
• Following the resolution of this CVE, apply a permanent control requiring all uploaded chemical files to pass through an isolated processing container.
• Integrate the Sigma, YARA, and IDS detection rules into a unified detection ecosystem to catch future exploit attempts against this parser.

References

1. NVD Entry: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-46292 — Official NVD record with description, CVSS score, and references.
2. Open Babel GitHub Repository: https://github.com/openbabel/openbabel — Source code for version 3.1.1 and master; monitors for future patches.
3. MITRE ATT&CK T1203: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1203/ — Reference for the exploitation tactic used.
4. CWE-787 Out-of-bounds Write: https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/787.html — Common weakness enumeration for this vulnerability class.

Threat Actor / In-the-Wild Notes: No active threat actor campaigns documented for CVE-2022-46292 as of the analysis date. CISA KEV does not list this CVE, and no exploit-in-the-wild reports were identified. The EPSS score of 0.00804 (53.3rd percentile) indicates moderate probability of weaponization in the immediate future, particularly given the unpatched status and trivial attack mechanism (malicious file processing). Security teams should treat this as a high-priority unpatched vulnerability warranting active monitoring.