Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-31970

high Nessus Plugin ID 302926

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- HTSlib is a library for reading and writing bioinformatics file formats. GZI files are used to index block-compressed GZIP [BGZF] files. In the GZI loading function, `bgzf_index_load_hfile()`, it was possible to trigger an integer overflow, leading to an under- or zero-sized buffer being allocated to store the index. Sixteen zero bytes would then be written to this buffer, and, depending on the result of the overflow the rest of the file may also be loaded into the buffer as well. If the function did attempt to load the data, it would eventually fail due to not reading the expected number of records, and then try to free the overflowed heap buffer. Exploiting this bug causes a heap buffer overflow. If a user opens a file crafted to exploit this issue, it could lead to the program crashing, or overwriting of data and heap structures in ways not expected by the program. It may be possible to use this to obtain arbitrary code execution. Versions 1.23.1, 1.22.2 and 1.21.1 include fixes for this issue. The easiest work-around is to discard any `.gzi` index files from untrusted sources, and use the `bgzip -r` option to recreate them.
(CVE-2026-31970)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 302926

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_31970.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/18/2026

Updated: 3/20/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-31970

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.1

Temporal Score: 7.4

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.1

Threat Score: 5

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:U

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:H/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:htslib, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:htslib, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 3/18/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-31970

Detections

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