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UK Cyber Defence
VulnerabilityAnalyzed

CVE-2026-31969

When reading data encoded using the `BYTE_ARRAY_STOP` method, an out-by-one error in the `cram_byte_array_stop_decode_char()` function check for a full output buffer could result in a single attacker-controlled byte being written beyond the end of a…

HIGH 7.1EPSS 0.34%

Does this matter?

High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (0.34%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.

Description

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. When reading data encoded using the `BYTE_ARRAY_STOP` method, an out-by-one error in the `cram_byte_array_stop_decode_char()` function check for a full output buffer could result in a single attacker-controlled byte being written beyond the end of a heap allocation. Exploiting this bug causes a heap buffer overflow. If a user opens a file crafted to exploit this issue, it could lead to the program crashing, or overwriting of data and heap structures in ways not expected by the program. It may be possible to use this to obtain arbitrary code execution. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.

CVSS 4.0
7.1 HIGHCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
EPSS
0.34% probability · 27th percentile
CISA KEV
Not listed
Weakness
CWE-122, CWE-787
Affected
htslib/htslib
Source
security-advisories@github.com

Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.