Log in Start free

Vulnerability · Published Oct 8, 2026 · Assigned by securin

CVE-2026-44037Uncontrolled recursion in DCMTK JSON reader allows denial of service

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in DCMTK from OFFIS. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 1% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 98.9% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

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.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12dcmtkno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2026-44037
Debian:13dcmtkno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2026-44037
Debian:14dcmtkno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2026-44037
Ubuntu:26.04:LTSdcmtkno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-44037
Ubuntu:26.10dcmtkno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-44037

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0

Weakness: CWE-674 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

References