CVE-2026-31965
March 18, 2026
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.
Affected Packages
https://github.com/samtools/htslib.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =1.21 <1.21.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.21.1https://github.com/samtools/htslib.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=1.22 <1.22.2Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.22.2https://github.com/samtools/htslib.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =1.23 <1.23.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.23.1Related ResourcesĀ (2)
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Contact UsCVSS v4
Base Score:
6.9
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Attack Requirements
NONE
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Vulnerable System Confidentiality
LOW
Vulnerable System Integrity
NONE
Vulnerable System Availability
LOW
Subsequent System Confidentiality
NONE
Subsequent System Integrity
NONE
Subsequent System Availability
NONE
CVSS v3
Base Score:
6.5
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
LOW
Integrity
NONE
Availability
LOW
EPSS
Base Score:
0.04