CVE-2026-31972

March 19, 2026, 6:54 p.m.

6.9
Medium

Description

SAMtools is a program for reading, manipulating and writing bioinformatics file formats. The `mpileup` command outputs DNA sequences that have been aligned against a known reference. On each output line it writes the reference position, optionally the reference DNA base at that position (obtained from a separate file) and all of the DNA bases that aligned to that position. As the output is ordered by position, reference data that is no longer needed is discarded once it has been printed out. Under certain conditions the data could be discarded too early, leading to an attempt to read from a pointer to freed memory. This bug may allow information about program state to be leaked. It may also cause a program crash through an attempt to access invalid memory. This bug is fixed in versions 1.21.1 and 1.22. There is no workaround for this issue.

Product(s) Impacted

Vendor Product Versions
Samtools
  • Samtools
  • *

Weaknesses

Common security weaknesses mapped to this vulnerability.

CWE-416
Use After Free
Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code.

*CPE(s)

Affected systems and software identified for this CVE.

Type Vendor Product Version Update Edition Language Software Edition Target Software Target Hardware Other Information
a samtools samtools / / / / / / / /

References

https://github.com/samtools/samtools/commit/3036eb9af945fcef359427a2d359855553da4adf
https://github.com/samtools/samtools/security/advisories/GHSA-72c8-4jf3-f27p
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/18/11

Tags

[email protected]
CWE-416
2026-03-18
CVE-2026-31972

CVSS Score

6.9 / 10

CVSS Data - 4.0

  • Attack Vector: NETWORK
  • Attack Complexity: LOW
  • Attack Requirements: NONE
  • Privileges Required: NONE
  • User Interaction: NONE
  • Scope:
  • Confidentiality Impact: LOW
  • Integrity Impact: NONE
  • Availability Impact: LOW
  • Exploit Maturity: NOT_DEFINED

    • 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/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

    View Vector String

Timeline

Published: March 18, 2026, 9:16 p.m.
Last Modified: March 19, 2026, 6:54 p.m.

Status : Analyzed

CVE has been recently published to the CVE List and has been received by the NVD.

More info

Source

[email protected]

*Disclaimer: Some vulnerabilities do not have an associated CPE. To enhance the data, we use AI to infer CPEs based on CVE details. This is an automated process and might not always be accurate.