CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-116742

MediumCVSS 4.4
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.12%

2th percentile - higher than 2% of all known CVEs

Summary

HTSlib through 1.24 contains a heap out-of-bounds write and read vulnerability in bgzf_index_load_hfile() in bgzf.c that allows attackers to corrupt heap memory by supplying a crafted .gzi index entry count. A count of 0xFFFFFFFF truncates noffs to zero, causing writes past a malloc(0) buffer and an offs[-1] read in bgzf_useek(), resulting in heap corruption or crashes in tools like samtools and bcftools.

Risk Assessment

Potential heap memory corruption and crashes of bioinformatics tools (samtools, bcftools) when processing crafted index files. This may lead to data loss or unauthorized code execution in the process context.

Recommendation

Update HTSlib to a version later than 1.24 if available, or apply the vendor patch. Avoid processing untrusted .gzi files or verify their integrity before use.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

HTSlib through 1.24 contains a heap out-of-bounds write and read vulnerability in bgzf_index_load_hfile() in bgzf.c that allows attackers to corrupt heap memory by supplying a crafted .gzi index entry count. A count of 0xFFFFFFFF truncates noffs to zero, causing writes past a malloc(0) buffer and an offs[-1] read in bgzf_useek(), resulting in heap corruption or crashes in tools like samtools and bcftools.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS