CVE-2026-31972

9.8 CRITICAL
Published: March 18, 2026 Modified: March 19, 2026
View on NVD

Description

SAMtools is a program for reading, manipulating and writing bioinformatics file formats. The `mpileup` command outputs DNA sequences that have been aligned against a known reference. On each output line it writes the reference position, optionally the reference DNA base at that position (obtained from a separate file) and all of the DNA bases that aligned to that position. As the output is ordered by position, reference data that is no longer needed is discarded once it has been printed out. Under certain conditions the data could be discarded too early, leading to an attempt to read from a pointer to freed memory. This bug may allow information about program state to be leaked. It may also cause a program crash through an attempt to access invalid memory. This bug is fixed in versions 1.21.1 and 1.22. There is no workaround for this issue.

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CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/samtools/samtools/security/advisories/GHSA-72c8-4jf3-f27p
Source: security-advisories@github.com
Vendor Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/03/18/11
Source: af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
Mailing List Third Party Advisory

3 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
9.8 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.0%
2th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

samtools