Threat Intelligence Database

A global out-of-bounds read in the Huffman decoder of the bundled IJG JPEG libraries (dcmjpeg/libijg8, libijg12 and libijg16) of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to read memory beyond the extend_test[] and extend_offset[] tables, causing incorrectly decoded pixel data or a crash, via a DICOM file with a crafted JPEG stream whose Huffman table defines a difference category above 15. Huffman symbol values are not range-checked unless DCMTK is built with DCMTK_ENABLE_STRICT_HUFFMAN_TABLE_CHECK, which is disabled by default. dcmdjpeg and any application that decompresses JPEG DICOM images with DCMTK are affected. The issue is fixed in commit d6ae1bc8d5b9ae9c7300013c8c85cc2ea0fd8cf5.

Uncontrolled mutual recursion between DcmJSONReader::parseDataSet(), DcmJSONReader::parseElement() and DcmJSONReader::parseSequence() in dcmdata/libsrc/dcjsonrd.cc of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a crafted DICOM JSON document with deeply nested sequence (SQ) values. The json2dcm tool and any service that converts untrusted DICOM JSON (for example, DICOMweb payloads) with this reader are affected. The issue is fixed in commit cf955e64c35a1e07ba10698f639d5dcdec53b9d7.

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.

Uncontrolled recursion in DcmDicomDir::moveRecordToTree() in dcmdata/libsrc/dcdicdir.cc of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a crafted DICOMDIR file with a deeply chained sequence of directory records linked through the Offset of Referenced Lower-Level Directory Entity attribute. Any application that opens the DICOMDIR is affected, including dcmgpdir and media viewers built on DCMTK. The issue is fixed in commit ca761f7f3dcaaddaa95be87cf5d736138d7c3a9f.

A heap-based out-of-bounds read in DcmRLECodecDecoder::decodeFrame() in dcmdata/libsrc/dcrleccd.cc of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to read up to 63 bytes of adjacent heap memory, or cause a crash, via a crafted RLE Lossless DICOM file whose pixel data fragment is shorter than the 64-byte RLE header. The function copies 64 bytes without checking the fragment length, a check that the sibling function decode() already performs. Applications that decode RLE images frame by frame (for example, through DcmPixelData::getUncompressedFrame()) are affected. The dcmdrle command-line tool uses decode() and is not affected. The issue is fixed in commit 45469f3c30037e9c7159290e4bb74cd7b3b9ef1d.

Uncontrolled recursion in XMLNode::ParseXMLElement() and XMLNode::emptyTheNode() in the bundled XML parser (ofstd/libsrc/ofxml.cc) of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a crafted XML document with deeply nested elements. The parser is reachable through dcmencap when encapsulating a CDA document, and through any application that calls OFXMLParser::parseFile() or OFXMLParser::parseString() on untrusted input. The issue is fixed in commit d12e350e687530eb41e2b0c860aff4d8c04e5941.

Uncontrolled recursion in DcmSequenceOfItems::read() and DcmItem::read() in the dcmdata library of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a DICOM dataset containing deeply nested sequences (SQ elements). The dataset can be sent in a C-STORE request to storescp, dcmrecv, dcmqrscp, or any other DICOM service built on DCMTK, because the received dataset is parsed before any authentication takes place. Local tools such as dcmdump also crash when opening such a file. The issue is fixed in commit 885ff0f10372bd589b5f44cea974f28a3964cb0f, which adds a configurable sequence nesting depth limit (default 64).

DCMTK through 3.7.0 contains a heap over-read vulnerability in ConcatenationLoader that copies pixel data frames without validating the PixelData buffer length against the declared NumberOfFrames. Attackers can craft malicious DICOM instances declaring more frames than the buffer contains to trigger heap over-reads that crash the application or leak adjacent heap memory.

A flaw has been found in OFFIS DCMTK up to 3.7.0. The affected element is the function XMLNode::parseFile in the library ofstd/libsrc/ofxml.cc. Executing a manipulation can lead to heap-based buffer overflow. The attack may be performed from remote. The exploit has been published and may be used. This patch is called 1d4b3815c0987840a983160bfc671fef63a3105b. It is best practice to apply a patch to resolve this issue. The vendor was contacted early, responded in a very professional manner and quickly released a fixed version of the affected product.

A weakness has been identified in OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0. This affects the function DcmQueryRetrieveIndexDatabaseHandle::deleteOldestImages of the file dcmqrdb/libsrc/dcmqrdbi.cc of the component dcmqrscp. Executing a manipulation can lead to heap-based buffer overflow. The attack may be launched remotely. This patch is called 0f78a4ef6f645ea5530166e445e5436a5de58e75. A patch should be applied to remediate this issue.