CVE-2026-75819

A flaw was found in aspell. When loading a binary dictionary file, the application fails to validate offset fields from the file header against buffer boundaries. By convincing a user to process a specially crafted dictionary file, an attacker can trigger an out-of-bounds read, leading to an application crash that results in a Denial of Service (DoS) or the potential disclosure of heap memory contents.

This vulnerability is rated as Moderate impact for Red Hat products because exploitation requires user interaction to process an untrusted custom dictionary, limiting the attack surface to local or user-assisted scenarios. In typical enterprise environments, GNU Aspell is invoked as an ephemeral command-line utility or auxiliary library against system-managed wordlists rather than untrusted binary files. An attacker must induce a local user or automated service to explicitly parse an external, manipulated dictionary file, restricting the consequence to an application abort or limited leakage of heap data without enabling arbitrary code execution.

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base, or stability.