CVE-2026-31965 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-31965: HTSlib CRAM reader has out-of-bounds reads due to improper validation of input

Vendor Samtools
Product htslib
Weakness CWE-125
Published March 18, 2026
Last update March 19, 2026

CVSS base score

6.9/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required None
User interaction None
Confidentiality
Integrity

CVSS vector

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

What the vulnerability does

01Description

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data. In the `cram_decode_slice()` function called while reading CRAM records, validation of the reference id field occurred too late, allowing two out of bounds reads to occur before the invalid data was detected. The bug does allow two values to be leaked to the caller, however as the function reports an error it may be difficult to exploit them. It is also possible that the program will crash due to trying to access invalid memory. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

March 18, 2026 CVE published
March 19, 2026 Record updated