CVE-2026-75819
LowCVSS 1.8Summary
GNU Aspell contains an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in ReadOnlyDict::load() in readonly_ws.cpp. When loading a binary .rws dictionary file, it uses offset fields from the file header as byte indices into a heap buffer without validating their bounds. An attacker can trigger this by convincing a user to run aspell with a crafted dictionary file supplied through --master, --dict-dir, or configuration options, leading to heap memory disclosure or a denial of service via application crash.
Risk Assessment
The risk includes potential disclosure of sensitive data from heap memory and disruption of services using Aspell, affecting confidentiality and availability.
Recommendation
It is recommended to immediately upgrade GNU Aspell to version 0.60.8.3 or later, which includes the fix. Until updated, avoid processing untrusted dictionary files.
Other vulnerabilities in GNU Aspell
See all- CVE-2026-75820Low
GNU Aspell contains an integer truncation vulnerability in the WritableDict::add() function in modules/speller/default/writable.cpp. When loading a personal wordlist, the word length is stored as a single byte, causing truncation for words whose length is a multiple of 256, leading to heap corruption. An attacker can exploit this by convincing a user to run aspell with a crafted personal wordlist containing such a word, resulting in denial of service. This issue was fixed in commit 782ce94e4dc71eaec4ee1bd945eb3b9c47c5387d, which will be released in version 0.60.8.3.
- CVE-2026-75818Low
GNU Aspell prezip-bin contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the decompressor in prog/prezip.c. The decompressor does not properly check buffer space, so a crafted compressed file can cause out-of-bounds read and write operations on the heap. An attacker who convinces a user to process a malicious compressed file with prezip-bin can trigger memory corruption, leading to a process crash.
Original NVD description (English source)
GNU Aspell contains an out-of-bounds read vulnerability in ReadOnlyDict::load() in readonly_ws.cpp. When loading a binary .rws dictionary file, it uses offset fields from the file header as byte indices into a heap buffer without validating their bounds. An attacker can trigger this by convincing a user to run aspell with a crafted dictionary file supplied through --master, --dict-dir, or configuration options, leading to heap memory disclosure or a denial of service via application crash. This issue was fixed in commit 941953b25031bc9104e83f58e138a664b8dedc3f which will be released in version 0.60.8.3.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS