CVE-2026-44038
Description
A flaw was found in DCMTK. An attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read by providing a specially crafted DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) image file containing malformed JPEG data. This flaw can lead to a Denial of Service (DoS) by crashing the application or result in minor information disclosure from unauthorized memory reads.
Statement
This vulnerability is rated as having a Moderate impact for Red Hat because exploitation requires user interaction to process an untrusted, maliciously formed DICOM file, limiting the outcome to denial of service or out-of-bounds memory reading. The affected library and utility binaries are typically utilized in specialized medical imaging workflows rather than default system services. Consequently, standard system environments are not exposed to automatic remote compromise.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Memory
An attacker could get secret values such as cryptographic keys, PII, memory addresses, or other information that could be used in additional attacks.
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism
Out-of-bounds memory could contain memory addresses or other information that can be used to bypass ASLR and other protection mechanisms in order to improve the reliability of exploiting a separate weakness for code execution.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker could cause a segmentation fault or crash by causing memory to be read outside of the bounds of the buffer. This is especially likely when the code reads a variable amount of data and assumes that a sentinel exists to stop the read operation, such as a NUL in a string.
Other
Technical Impact: Varies by Context
The read operation could produce other undefined or unexpected results.
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