CVE-2026-75819: Out-of-bounds Read in GNU Aspell

Severity: low (CVSS 1.8 v4.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-10-06 · updated 2026-10-06
Weakness: CWE-125

Description

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.

Affected products

GNU Aspell: before 0.60.8.3 — fixed in 0.60.8.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: GNU Aspell 0.60.8.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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