AnalysisPublished 28 May 2026

DICOM, Pydicom, GDCM, and Orthanc: A technical tour of what really happens in the heap

Source Cisco Talos

Description

This white paper presents a concrete case study demonstrating the creation of a heap overflow vulnerability through the exploitation of the DICOM file format.

Impact

The impact involves potential memory corruption via heap overflow during DICOM image uploads to Orthanc servers. This could affect the stability or security of systems processing DICOM files, possibly leading to denial of service or other unintended behavior. However, the severity is assessed as low, and no active exploitation has been observed.

Defensive guidance

Since no patches or official fixes are referenced, users should monitor vendor communications for updates. No specific mitigation steps are provided by the source at this time.

References

blog.talosintelligence.com/dicom-pydicom-gdcm-and-orthanc-a-technical-tour-of-what-really-happens-in-the-heap/ (opens in a new tab)

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Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 28 May 2026, 10:11 UTC

References

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