CVE-2026-50254: CWE-401 Missing release of memory after effective lifetime in OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit
CVE-2026-50254 is a high-severity vulnerability in the OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send crafted connection requests to the storescp service in single-process mode, causing memory to leak rapidly. This memory exhaustion eventually kills the service, leading to denial of service until manual restart.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability involves a missing release of memory after its effective lifetime (CWE-401) in the OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit's storescp component when running in default single-process mode. An attacker can repeatedly send a crafted connection request without authentication, causing the service's memory usage to grow quickly until it crashes. After the crash, the service stops accepting connections until an operator restarts it, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
Potential Impact
The impact is a denial of service caused by memory exhaustion in the storescp service of the DCMTK Toolkit. The service becomes unresponsive and must be manually restarted, potentially disrupting medical imaging workflows relying on this component.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. No official fix or workaround is currently documented. Operators should monitor the storescp service for abnormal memory growth and be prepared to restart the service if it becomes unresponsive. Consider running storescp in a multi-process mode if supported, as the vulnerability specifically affects the default single-process mode.
CVE-2026-50254: CWE-401 Missing release of memory after effective lifetime in OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit
Description
CVE-2026-50254 is a high-severity vulnerability in the OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit. An unauthenticated remote attacker can send crafted connection requests to the storescp service in single-process mode, causing memory to leak rapidly. This memory exhaustion eventually kills the service, leading to denial of service until manual restart.
CVSS v4.0
Score 8.7high
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability involves a missing release of memory after its effective lifetime (CWE-401) in the OFFIS DICOM DCMTK Toolkit's storescp component when running in default single-process mode. An attacker can repeatedly send a crafted connection request without authentication, causing the service's memory usage to grow quickly until it crashes. After the crash, the service stops accepting connections until an operator restarts it, resulting in a denial-of-service condition.
Potential Impact
The impact is a denial of service caused by memory exhaustion in the storescp service of the DCMTK Toolkit. The service becomes unresponsive and must be manually restarted, potentially disrupting medical imaging workflows relying on this component.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. No official fix or workaround is currently documented. Operators should monitor the storescp service for abnormal memory growth and be prepared to restart the service if it becomes unresponsive. Consider running storescp in a multi-process mode if supported, as the vulnerability specifically affects the default single-process mode.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- icscert
- Date Reserved
- 2026-06-22T17:03:25.973Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 6a4436ef27e9c797196d42a2
Added to database: 06/30/2026, 21:36:47 UTC
Last enriched: 06/30/2026, 21:51:25 UTC
Last updated: 06/30/2026, 21:51:25 UTC
Views: 3
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