pydicom up to 3.0.1 DICOM File Parser path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in pydicom up to 3.0.1. Affected is an unknown function of the component DICOM File Parser. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-32711. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in pydicom up to 3.0.1 and classified as critical. This issue affects an unknown functionality of the component DICOM File Parser. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

pydicom is a pure Python package for working with DICOM files. Versions 2.0.0-rc.1 through 3.0.1 are vulnerable to Path Traversal through a maliciously crafted DICOMDIR ReferencedFileID when it is set to a path outside the File-set root. pydicom resolves the path only to confirm that it exists, but does not verify that the resolved path remains under the File-set root. Subsequent public FileSet operations such as copy(), write(), and remove()+write(use_existing=True) use that unchecked path in file I/O operations. This allows arbitrary file read/copy and, in some flows, move/delete outside the File-set root. This issue has been fixed in version 3.0.2.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-32711 since 03/13/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1006 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 303276 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-32711), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 3.0.2 eliminates this vulnerability. The upgrade is hosted for download at github.com. Applying the patch 6414f01a053dff925578799f5a7208d2ae585e82 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (303276). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Name

• pydicom

Version

• 3.0.0
• 3.0.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/pydicom/pydicom/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

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