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CVE-2026-31964

HTSlib CRAM decoder has a NULL Pointer Dereference

6.9 MediumFix available

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges needed
None
User interaction
None

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
Low
Availability
Low

Exploit likelihood

0.34%Up 0.3 points since Mar 19, 2026
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 6.9

HTSlib CRAM decoder has a NULL Pointer Dereference

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
CVE-2026-31964
CVSS 4.0
6.9 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
EUVDEUVD-2026-12932 6.9

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
EUVD-2026-12932
CVSS 4.0
6.9 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 6.9

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
CVE-2026-31964
CVSS 4.0
6.9 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
CVSS 3.1
7.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
OSV 6.9

HTSlib CRAM decoder has a NULL Pointer Dereference

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
CVE-2026-31964
CVSS 4.0
6.9 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Weakness
CWE-476
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2026-31964 7.5

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-31964
CVSS 3.1
7.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2026-31964 6.9

HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. CRAM is a compressed format which stores DNA sequence alignment data using a variety of encodings and compression methods. While most alignment records store DNA sequence and quality values, the format also allows them to omit this data in certain cases to save space. Due to some quirks of the CRAM format, it is necessary to handle these records carefully as they will actually store data that needs to be consumed and then discarded. Unfortunately the CONST, XPACK and XRLE encodings did not properly implement the interface needed to do this. Trying to decode records with omitted sequence or quality data using these encodings would result in an attempt to write to a NULL pointer. 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.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2026-31964
CVSS 4.0
6.9 MediumCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS 3.1
7.5 HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
htslib
Debian:12
All versions, plus listed versions
1.16+ds-31.17+ds-0+exp11.17+ds-11.18+ds-0+exp11.18+ds-1
Show 15 moreShow less
1.19+ds-0+exp01.19+ds-11.19+ds-1+exp11.19+ds-1.11.20+ds-11.20+ds-21.21+ds-0+exp11.21+ds-0+exp21.21+ds-11.22.1+ds-11.22.1+ds-21.22.1+ds2-11.24-11.24-21.24-3
None known
htslib
Debian:13
All versions, plus listed versions
1.21+ds-11.22.1+ds-11.22.1+ds-21.22.1+ds2-11.24-11.24-21.24-3
None known
htslib
Debian:14
before 1.24-2, plus listed versions
1.21+ds-11.22.1+ds-11.22.1+ds-21.22.1+ds2-11.24-1
1.24-2
htslib
Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
0.2.0~rc3-10.2.0~rc3-1ubuntu0.1~esm1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.2.1-11.2.1-21.2.1-2ubuntu11.2.1-2ubuntu1+esm1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.5-11.5-4ubuntu11.6-3ubuntu11.6-41.6-4build11.7-21.7-2ubuntu0.1~esm1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.9-101.9-111.9-121.10.2-2ubuntu11.10.2-2ubuntu21.10.2-31.10.2-3ubuntu0.1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.13+ds-21.13+ds-2build1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.17+ds-11.18+ds-11.19+ds-1.1build21.19+ds-1.1build3
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:25.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.21+ds-1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:26.10
All versions, plus listed versions
1.22.1+ds2-11.22.1+ds2-1build1
None known
htslib
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
1.21+ds-11.22.1+ds2-1
None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2026-31964 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 6.9) in Htslib, published March 18, 2026. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.34%, the 27th percentile. Fixed in htslib 1.24-2.

References

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