HDF5 is a high-performance library and a file format specification that implements the HDF5 data model. If a file is corrupted such that an array datatype's size, the number of elements, and the element size are not in agreement it can trigger an out of bounds read. The array datatype stores the full size of the datatype (`dt->shared->size`) separately from the number of elements (`dt->shared->u.array.nelem`) and the element size (`dt->shared->parent->shared->size`). If any one of these are corrupted so that they don't align with the others (element size * nelem = full size), it can lead to an out of bounds read. Depending on what is corrupted, it can alter the type of out of bounds read triggered. The vulnerability is present only in files that have been maliciously altered, as its generally not possible to independently alter the full size of the datatype, the element count and the element size. As such, this is only present if a malicious actor is altering files, and won't appear in regular usage.

HDF5 is software for managing data. Prior to version 1.14.4-2, an attacker who can control an `h5` file parsed by HDF5 can trigger a write-based heap buffer overflow condition. This can lead to a denial-of-service condition, and potentially further issues such as remote code execution depending on the practical exploitability of the heap overflow against modern operating systems. Real-world exploitability of this issue in terms of remote-code execution is currently unknown. Version 1.14.4-2 fixes the issue.