SAMtools is a program for reading, manipulating and writing bioinformatics file formats. Starting in version 1.17, in the cram-size command, used to write information about how well CRAM files are compressed, a check to see if the `cram_decode_compression_header()` was missing. If the function returned an error, this could lead to a NULL pointer dereference. Exploiting this bug causes a NULL pointer dereference. Typically this will cause the program to crash. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.
History

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description SAMtools is a program for reading, manipulating and writing bioinformatics file formats. Starting in version 1.17, in the cram-size command, used to write information about how well CRAM files are compressed, a check to see if the `cram_decode_compression_header()` was missing. If the function returned an error, this could lead to a NULL pointer dereference. Exploiting this bug causes a NULL pointer dereference. Typically this will cause the program to crash. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.
Title NULL pointer dereference in samtools cram-size
Weaknesses CWE-476
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-03-18T20:34:00.846Z

Reserved: 2026-03-10T15:40:10.486Z

Link: CVE-2026-31973

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-03-18T21:16:26.250

Modified: 2026-03-18T21:16:26.250

Link: CVE-2026-31973

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.