Buffer overflow in Orthanc Dicom Server

CVE-2026-5442

A heap buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the DICOM image decoder. Dimension fields are encoded using Value Representation (VR) Unsigned Long (UL), instead of the expected VR Unsigned Short (US), which allows extremely large dimensions to be processed. This causes an integer overflow during frame size calculation and results in out-of-bounds memory access during image decoding.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.006 (48.3th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 48th percentile — 48.3% 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-2026-5442: held from 0.009 to 0.006.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.009 · newest: 0.006 · change: -0.003

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-5442?
CVE-2026-5442 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Orthanc Dicom Server, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-04-09.
How severe is CVE-2026-5442?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.