CVE-2026-44036: CWE-674 Uncontrolled Recursion in OFFIS DCMTK
Description
CVE-2026-44036 is a medium severity vulnerability in OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 involving uncontrolled mutual recursion in the XML-to-DICOM converter. This flaw allows denial of service via crafted XML files with deeply nested sequence and item elements, causing stack exhaustion and process crashes. The vulnerability affects the xml2dcm tool and any service using this code to convert untrusted XML to DICOM. A fix has been implemented in a specific commit.
CVSS v4.0
Score 6.8medium
Affected software
OFFIS
DCMTK
cpe:2.3:a:offis:dcmtk:3.7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*Run on your own infrastructure? Check whether these packages are installed with threat-finder — our free open-source scanner.
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
The vulnerability arises from uncontrolled mutual recursion between the functions DcmXMLParseHelper::parseDataSet() and DcmXMLParseHelper::parseSequence() in the xml2dcm component of OFFIS DCMTK version 3.7.0. An attacker can exploit this by providing a crafted XML file containing deeply nested sequence and item elements, leading to stack exhaustion and a denial of service condition due to process crash. The issue is resolved in commit 87f256d73e30656a822bf7d76d1cf1d9bb693954.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation results in denial of service through stack exhaustion and process crash when processing maliciously crafted XML files. This impacts the xml2dcm tool and any service that converts untrusted XML to DICOM using the vulnerable code. There is no indication of privilege escalation or data compromise.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available and has been implemented in commit 87f256d73e30656a822bf7d76d1cf1d9bb693954. Users of DCMTK 3.7.0 should apply this patch or upgrade to a version containing this fix to prevent denial of service via crafted XML input.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- securin
- Date Reserved
- 2026-05-05T02:49:00.667Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 6ac794de2cdf04f6561753d0
Added to database: 10/08/2026, 13:04:30 UTC
Last enriched: 10/08/2026, 13:18:48 UTC
Last updated: 10/08/2026, 13:19:31 UTC
Views: 4
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