CVE-2026-31973

March 19, 2026, 6:48 p.m.

6.9
Medium

Description

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.

Product(s) Impacted

Vendor Product Versions
Samtools
  • Samtools
  • *, 1.23

Weaknesses

Common security weaknesses mapped to this vulnerability.

CWE-476
NULL Pointer Dereference
A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit.

*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 / / / / / / / /
a samtools samtools / / / / / / / /
a samtools samtools 1.23 / / / / / / /

References

https://github.com/samtools/samtools/commit/06fc2a219b3d7c94d3f412c09f6d1efd51199f2f
https://github.com/samtools/samtools/security/advisories/GHSA-x86f-q6fj-cm43
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/18/12

Tags

[email protected]
CWE-476
2026-03-18
CVE-2026-31973

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: NONE
  • Integrity Impact: LOW
  • Availability Impact: LOW
  • Exploit Maturity: NOT_DEFINED

    • CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/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, 6:48 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.