GitHub Advisoryadvisory · NuGet
GHSA-jxpf-xq2m-q525 OpenMcdf has an Infinite loop DoS via crafted CFB directory cycle
MEDIUM
Official page ↗
- Aliases
- CVE-2026-41511
- Ecosystem
- NuGet
- Packages
- OpenMcdf
- Severity
- Moderate
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-835
- Reviewed
- 2026-04-22
Affected packages
• NuGet OpenMcdf: < 3.1.3 → fixed in 3.1.3
Description
Summary
OpenMcdf does not detect cycles in the directory entry red-black tree of a Compound File Binary (CFB) document. A crafted CFB file with a cycle in the `LeftSiblingID` / `RightSiblingID` chain causes `Storage.EnumerateEntries()` and `Storage.OpenStream()` to loop indefinitely, consuming the calling thread with no possibility of recovery via `try/catch`.
Details
CFB directory entries form a red-black tree linked by `LeftSiblingID` and `RightSiblingID` fields. OpenMcdf's `DirectoryTreeEnumerator` and `DirectoryTree.TryGetDirectoryEntry` traverse this tree without tracking visited node IDs, so a crafted cycle (e.g. entry A's `RightSiblingID` points to entry B, and entry B's `LeftSiblingID` points back to entry A) causes traversal to loop indefinitely.
Two distinct code paths are affected:
• `Storage.EnumerateEntries()` - `DirectoryTreeEnumerator.MoveNext()` never returns `false`; the same entry is yielded on every iteration and the caller's `foreach` never exits. Heap grows unboundedly as entries accumulate.
• `Storage.OpenStream()` - `DirectoryTree.TryGetDirectoryEntry` loops indefinitely inside `DirectoryEntries.TryGetSibling` during the name lookup.
PoC
A crafted CFB file with a sibling cycle (see attached) triggers the issue with the following code:
```csharp
using OpenMcdf;
using var ms = new MemoryStream(File.ReadAllBytes("crafted.cfb"));
using var root = RootStorage.Open(ms);
// Never returns - EnumerateEntries loops indefinitely
foreach (var entry in root.EnumerateEntries())
{
Console.WriteLine(entry.Name);
if (entry.Type == EntryType.Stream)
root.OpenStream(entry.Name); // also hangs depending on the cycle structure
}
```
Impact
A denial of service affecting any application that opens untrusted CFB files with OpenMcdf. A small crafted input carrying a valid CFB magic header (`D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A E1`) is sufficient to pass initial format validation and reach the vulnerable traversal code. No exception is thrown, so `try/catch` cannot protect callers. The affected thread is unrecoverable without killing the process.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-41511 OpenMcdf is a fully .NET / C# library to manipulate Compound File Binary File Format files, also known as Structured Storage. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-835 Loop with Unreachable Exit Condition weakness
References
- https://github.com/openmcdf/openmcdf/security/advisories/GHSA-jxpf-xq2m-q525 web
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41511 advisory
- https://github.com/openmcdf/openmcdf/commit/24f445a557fc4f46461cf6d02d296cce16c293a0 web
- https://github.com/openmcdf/openmcdf package
- https://github.com/openmcdf/openmcdf/releases/tag/v3.1.3 web