Out-of-bounds Read in Htslib

CVE-2026-31965

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data. In the `cram_decode_slice()` function called while reading CRAM records, validation of the reference id field occurred too late, allowing two out of bounds reads to occur before the invalid data was detected. The bug does allow two values to be leaked to the caller, however as the function reports an error it may be difficult to exploit them. It is also possible that the program will crash due to trying to access invalid memory. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. There is no workaround for this issue.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.2 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (36.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 37th percentile — 36.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-31965: held from 0.004 to 0.005.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.005 · change: +0.001

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-31965?
CVE-2026-31965 is a high-severity vulnerability in Htslib, classified under Out-of-bounds Read. CVSS score: 8.2/10. Published 2026-03-18.
How severe is CVE-2026-31965?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.2 out of 10.