CVE-2026-48705VulnerabilityPublished 27 Oct 2026

monai · MONAILabel Server Crash and Silent Inference Corruption via Crafted DICOM (pydicom DS/IS Validation Bypass)

Affects monaiSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 9.3 Critical : upgrade to 1.6.1 as a priority.

Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 14:42 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

9.3Critical

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Patch: Available – fixed in 1.6.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: None
User Interaction: None
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: High
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: None: The attacker is unauthorized prior to attack, and therefore does not require any access to settings or files to carry out an attack.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: High: There is a total loss of integrity, or a complete loss of protection. For example, the attacker is able to modify any/all files protected by the impacted component. Alternatively, only some files can be modified, but malicious modification would present a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 27 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by 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 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade monai to 1.6.1.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
PyPImonai	Affected <1.6.1	Fixed in 1.6.1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

A patch is available in MONAILabel version 1.6.1 that addresses this vulnerability. Users should upgrade to MONAILabel 1.6.1 or later. Until patched, restricting network access to the MONAILabel REST API and enabling authentication (if configurable) can reduce exposure. Validate and sanitize DICOM inputs to reject invalid DS and IS values before processing. Monitor for and remove any malicious DICOM files from the datastore to prevent repeated crashes.

Description

MONAILabel server is vulnerable to a denial-of-service and silent inference corruption attack via crafted DICOM files exploiting pydicom's improper validation of Decimal String (DS) and Integer String (IS) values. An unauthenticated attacker can upload malicious DICOM files containing NaN or infinity values in spatial metadata fields, causing the server to crash or produce corrupted AI inference results. This affects MONAILabel versions prior to 1.6.1 and pydicom versions 0.9.7 through 3.0.2. The vulnerability arises because MONAILabel trusts pydicom output without validating these invalid values, and the REST API accepts uploads without authentication by default. A fix is available in MONAILabel 1.6.1.

Impact

An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause denial of service by crashing the MONAILabel inference pipeline with a single crafted DICOM upload. Additionally, the attacker can silently corrupt medical AI inference results by injecting invalid spatial metadata values. The server crash results in wasted compute resources (~16-18 seconds per crash) and persistent denial of service since the malicious DICOM remains stored and causes repeated crashes on inference attempts. There is no confidentiality impact reported. Integrity is impacted due to corrupted inference results. Availability is impacted due to server crashes.

Summary

The vulnerability stems from pydicom's acceptance of invalid DS and IS values such as NaN and infinity, which are not compliant with the DICOM standard. MONAILabel's PydicomReader builds affine transformation matrices from these values without checking for invalid floating-point values, allowing NaN to propagate through the spatial transform and ML inference pipeline. The MONAILabel REST API's unauthenticated PUT /datastore/ endpoint accepts these crafted DICOM files, which are stored and used for inference. Triggering inference on these files causes runtime errors and server crashes due to invalid pixel type buffers. The issue affects all pydicom versions from 0.9.7 to 3.0.2 and MONAILabel versions before 1.6.1. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 score of 9.3 (critical).

CWE-20Improper Input Validation (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: HighCWE Top 25 (2025): #18OWASP Top 10 A05:2025: Injection (opens in a new tab)
The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.
MITRE discourages mapping vulnerabilities to this broad entry; the root cause is usually a more specific weakness.
Architecture and Design · Attack Surface Reduction
Consider using language-theoretic security (LangSec) techniques that characterize inputs using a formal language and build "recognizers" for that language. This effectively requires parsing to be a distinct layer that effectively enforces a boundary between raw input and internal data representations, instead of…
Architecture and Design · Libraries or Frameworks
Use an input validation framework such as Struts or the OWASP ESAPI Validation API. Note that using a framework does not automatically address all input validation problems; be mindful of weaknesses that could arise from misusing the framework itself (CWE-1173).
Architecture and Design · Implementation · Attack Surface Reduction
Understand all the potential areas where untrusted inputs can enter the product, including but not limited to: parameters or arguments, cookies, anything read from the network, environment variables, reverse DNS lookups, query results, request headers, URL components, e-mail, files, filenames, databases, and any…
OWASP Cheat Sheets
XML Security (opens in a new tab)
Mass Assignment (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
SQL Injection Prevention (opens in a new tab)
Injection Prevention in Java (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V13.3.1 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.4 (opens in a new tab)
V5.1.3 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables (opens in a new tab)
Server Side Include (SSI) Injection (opens in a new tab)
Cross Zone Scripting (opens in a new tab)
Command Line Execution through SQL Injection (opens in a new tab)
Object Relational Mapping Injection (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 27 Oct 2026, 14:42 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-20

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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