CVE-2026-31973
March 18, 2026
SAMtools is a program for reading, manipulating and writing bioinformatics file formats. Starting in version 1.17, in the cram-size command, used to write information about how well CRAM files are compressed, a check to see if the "cram_decode_compression_header()" was missing. If the function returned an error, this could lead to a NULL pointer dereference. Exploiting this bug causes a NULL pointer dereference. Typically this will cause the program to crash. 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/samtools.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=1.17 <1.21.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.21.1https://github.com/samtools/samtools.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) >=1.22 <1.22.2Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.22.2https://github.com/samtools/samtools.git (GITHUB):
Affected version(s) =1.23 <1.23.1Fix Suggestion:
Update to version 1.23.1Related Resources (3)
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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
NONE
Vulnerable System Integrity
LOW
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
NONE
Integrity
LOW
Availability
LOW
Weakness Type (CWE)
NULL Pointer Dereference
EPSS
Base Score:
0.02
