CVE-2026-31973
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.
Published:Mar 18, 2026
Last Modified:Mar 25, 2026
EPS:Mar 18, 2026
EPSS Score:0.00017
CVSS Score:7.5
Affected Products
Vendor
Product
Action
Vendor
Samtools
Product
Samtools
Samtools
Samtools
Exploits
No exploit reference
Common Weakness Enumeration
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
No CAPEC recorded yet
Common Vulnerability Scoring System
Attack Vector
Network
Adjacent
Local
Physical
Privileges Required
None
Low
High
User Interaction
None
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Low
High
Integrity
None
Low
High
Availability
None
Low
High
