CVE-2026-44035 Uncontrolled recursion in DCMTK DICOMDIR parsing allows denial of service
Attackers can crash applications using DCMTK by providing a crafted DICOMDIR file that triggers uncontrolled recursion and stack exhaustion.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-44035?
CVE-2026-44035 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in OFFIS DCMTK, published on 8 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Uncontrolled recursion in DcmDicomDir::moveRecordToTree() in dcmdata/libsrc/dcdicdir.cc of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a crafted DICOMDIR file with a deeply chained sequence of directory records linked through the Offset of Referenced Lower-Level Directory Entity attribute. Any application that opens the DICOMDIR is affected, including dcmgpdir and media viewers built on DCMTK. The issue is fixed in commit ca761f7f3dcaaddaa95be87cf5d736138d7c3a9f.
Weakness: CWE-674
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-44035?
How do I fix CVE-2026-44035?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-44035 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2026-44035 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-44035 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-44035, GHSA-wqrm-3wjh-xj38, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-44035.