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VulnerabilityPublished Updated

CVE-2026-5438: Orthanc DICOM Server · Unthrottled Resource Allocation

Affects Orthanc DICOM ServerSource CVE Database V5

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Not known to be exploited · CVSS 7.5 High.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.5High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
EPSS
0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 41% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Exploitation evidence

  1. Disclosed: evidence found.

    CVE published 9 Apr 2026

  2. Detectable: no evidence on record.

    No public nuclei template indexed

  3. Weaponized: no evidence on record.

    No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB

  4. Exploited in the wild: no evidence on record.

    Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation

  5. Observed by OffSeq Mirage: no evidence on record.

    No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.

What to do

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
OrthancDICOM ServerAffected
  • <=1.12.10
Fixed in–

AI-suggested

Until an official fix is available, consider implementing external protections such as limiting request sizes or disabling gzip content encoding if feasible. Monitor for updates from the vendor or CERT.

Description

A gzip decompression bomb vulnerability exists when Orthanc processes HTTP request with `Content-Encoding: gzip`. The server does not enforce limits on decompressed size and allocates memory based on attacker-controlled compression metadata. A specially crafted gzip payload can trigger excessive memory allocation and exhaust system memory.

References

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