CVE-2026-31968CWE-121CWE-122CWE-787CWE-843

HTSlib CRAM decoder vulnerable to buffer overflow

High · published March 18, 2026

CVSS v4.0
8.8
EPSS
1%
Percentile
44.6
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. For the `VARINT` and `CONST` encodings, incomplete validation of the context in which the encodings were used could result in up to eight bytes being written beyond the end of a heap allocation, or up to eight bytes being written to the location of a one byte variable on the stack, possibly causing the values to adjacent variables to change unexpectedly. Depending on the data stream this could result either in a heap buffer overflow or a stack overflow. If a user opens a file crafted to exploit this issue it could lead to the program crashing, overwriting of data structures on the heap or stack in ways not expected by the program, or changing the control flow of the program. It may be possible to use this to obtain arbitrary code execution. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v4.0
8.8 · HIGH
Vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
EPSS
0.00540 · 44.6th percentile
Weaknesses
CWE-121 · Stack-based Buffer Overflow; CWE-122 · Heap-based Buffer Overflow; CWE-787 · Out-of-bounds Write; CWE-843 · Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type ('Type Confusion')
Published
2026-03-18T19:38Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 18 MAR 19:38Z
    HTSlib CRAM decoder vulnerable to buffer overflow
    cvelistv5