CDF is a library for the Common Data Format which is a self-describing data format for the storage and manipulation of scalar and multidimensional data. It is developed by the NASA.
Leon Juranic reported multiple heap-based buffer overflows for instance in the ReadAEDRList64(), SearchForRecord_r_64(), LastRecord64(), and CDFsel64() functions.
A remote attacker could entice a user to open a specially crafted CDF file, possibly resulting in the execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running the application, or a Denial of Service.
There is no known workaround at this time.
All CDF users should upgrade to the latest version:
# emerge --sync
# emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=sci-libs/cdf-3.3.0"