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Memory LeakWeakness · CWE-401

CVE-2026-3650

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-26
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A memory leak exists in the Grassroots DICOM library (GDCM). The bug occurs when parsing malformed DICOM files with non-standard VR types in file meta information. The vulnerability leads to vast memory allocations and resource depletion, triggering a denial-of-service condition. A maliciously crafted file can fill the heap in a single read operation without properly releasing it.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A memory leak vulnerability exists in the Grassroots DICOM library (GDCM) where parsing malformed DICOM files with non-standard VR (Value Representation) types in file meta information causes unbounded memory allocation. The vulnerability allows a maliciously crafted DICOM file to fill the heap in a single read operation without proper memory release, leading to resource depletion and denial of service.

MitigationImplement input validation to reject DICOM files with non-standard VR types in the file meta information, and add memory allocation limits/bounds checking during parsing to prevent unbounded memory consumption.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify GDCM library installation
    Search for GDCM shared libraries (libgdcm*) or binaries (gdcm*, gdcmdump) on the system. Common locations: /usr/lib, /usr/local/lib, /opt. Use commands like 'find /usr -name "libgdcm*" 2>/dev/null' or 'which gdcmdump'
    Affected if GDCM library is present on the system and used for DICOM processing
  2. Determine GDCM version
    If gdcm binary exists, run 'gdcmdump --version' or check the library file version with 'ldd' or 'dpkg -l | grep gdcm' (Debian) or 'rpm -qa | grep gdcm' (RHEL). Compare the version number against any available patch releases
    Affected if Running an unpatched version of GDCM that has not addressed the non-standard VR parsing vulnerability
  3. Identify applications using GDCM for DICOM parsing
    Look for DICOM viewers, medical imaging software, or PACS clients that link against libgdcm. Check process list or documentation for applications that process DICOM files using GDCM as the parsing backend
    Affected if Any application on the system uses GDCM to parse incoming DICOM files from untrusted sources
  4. Inspect DICOM file processing configuration
    Examine any configuration files, scripts, or services that accept DICOM files as input. Determine if input validation is performed on VR types in DICOM file meta information before passing to GDCM parser
    Affected if DICOM files are processed without validating that VR types conform to the DICOM standard before GDCM parsing occurs
  5. Audit recent DICOM file ingestion
    Review logs, audit trails, or network captures for incoming DICOM files. Determine if files with custom or non-standard VR types in their meta information have been processed recently
    Affected if DICOM files with non-standard VR in file meta information have been parsed by GDCM, triggering unbounded memory allocation

The environment is affected if GDCM library is installed and used to parse DICOM files, particularly if files with non-standard VR types in file meta information are processed without prior validation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement input validation to reject DICOM files with non-standard VR types in the file meta information, and add memory allocation limits/bounds checking during parsing to prevent unbounded memory consumption.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,860
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-3650 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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