Integer truncation leads to heap corruption in GNU Aspell
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Active
- Attack complexity
- High
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · Low
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
GNU Aspell before 0.60.8.3 contains an integer truncation flaw (CWE-190) in WritableDict::add(). When loading a personal wordlist, the word length is stored in a single byte, so words whose length is a multiple of 256 are truncated, which corrupts the heap. An attacker who convinces a user to run aspell with a crafted personal wordlist can cause a denial of service.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
Description from the CNA
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. This leads 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.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
Upgrade GNU Aspell to version 0.60.8.3, which contains the fix. Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 with no fix planned and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 with no fix available.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-10-29
- Fix · CNA Aspell (GNU) Fixed in 0.60.8.3
Fixed in the same release
Records fixed by the same vendor advisory or release, as the CNA lists them.
- Release ·
GNU Aspell 0.60.8.3
3 records Highest priority Priority LOW 3 LOW
Other records, highest priority first
- TI-2026-68407 Out-of-bounds read in GNU Aspell dictionary loadingPriority LOW 9
- TI-2026-68406 Heap buffer overflow in GNU Aspell prezip-bin decompressorPriority LOW 9
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-06 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-75820
- 2026-10-06 Alias added: GHSA-7gjr-5wh9-g7w9
- 2026-10-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 1
More GNU vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-19388 telnetd in GNU Inetutils through 2.7 allows remote authentication bypass via a "-f root"… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05975 GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-025 processes trailing strings after certain malformed… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05157 GNU Bash through 4.3 processes trailing strings after function definitions in the values… KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2014-05164 GNU Bash through 4.3 bash43-026 does not properly parse function definitions in the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2023-04522 Glibc: buffer overflow in ld.so leading to privilege escalation KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
- TI-2009-03392 The TLS protocol, and the SSL protocol 3.0 and possibly earlier, as used in Microsoft… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2026-75820 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-75820 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-7gjr-5wh9-g7w9 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-75820 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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