---
id: CVE-2026-44031
title: >-
  Uncontrolled recursion in DcmSequenceOfItems::read() and DcmItem::read() in
  the dcmdata library of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows a remote, unauthenticated
  attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via
  a DICOM …
summary: >-
  Uncontrolled recursion in DcmSequenceOfItems::read() and DcmItem::read() in
  the dcmdata library of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows a remote, unauthenticated
  attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via
  a DICOM …
severity: high
cvss: 7.5
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-674
vendor: OFFIS
product: DCMTK
affected:
  - DCMTK 3.7.0
published: '2026-10-08'
updated: '2026-10-08'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-08T15:17:53.563'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-44031'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/DCMTK/dcmtk/commit/885ff0f10372bd589b5f44cea974f28a3964cb0f
    label: 33c584b5-0579-4c06-b2a0-8d8329fcab9c
  - url: 'https://support.dcmtk.org/redmine/issues/1191'
    label: 33c584b5-0579-4c06-b2a0-8d8329fcab9c
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: partial
  timestamp: '2026-10-08T14:10:27.354529Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-10-08T13:42:55.144Z'
---

## Overview

Uncontrolled recursion in DcmSequenceOfItems::read() and DcmItem::read() in the dcmdata library of OFFIS DCMTK 3.7.0 allows a remote, unauthenticated attacker to cause a denial of service (stack exhaustion and process crash) via a DICOM dataset containing deeply nested sequences (SQ elements). The dataset can be sent in a C-STORE request to storescp, dcmrecv, dcmqrscp, or any other DICOM service built on DCMTK, because the received dataset is parsed before any authentication takes place. Local tools such as dcmdump also crash when opening such a file. The issue is fixed in commit 885ff0f10372bd589b5f44cea974f28a3964cb0f, which adds a configurable sequence nesting depth limit (default 64).

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.