#VU21946 Out-of-bounds read in Aspell - CVE-2019-17544

Vulnerability identifier: #VU21946

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1.2 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:L/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2019-17544

CWE-ID: CWE-125

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: No

Vulnerable software:
Aspell
Universal components / Libraries / Libraries used by multiple products

Vendor: GNU

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The vulnerability exists due to a boundary condition when processing an isolated character within the acommon::unescape() function in common/getdata.cpp file in GNU Aspell. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted Excel file, trick the victim into opening it, trigger out-of-bounds read error and read contents of memory on the system or crash the application.

Mitigation
Install update from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Aspell: 0.60 - 0.60.7

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External links
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/detail?id=16109
https://github.com/GNUAspell/aspell/commit/80fa26c74279fced8d778351cff19d1d8f44fe4e
https://github.com/GNUAspell/aspell/compare/rel-0.60.7...rel-0.60.8

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.