Vulnerability identifier: #VU21946

Vulnerability risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 4.7 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:L/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

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
http://bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/detail?id=16109
http://github.com/GNUAspell/aspell/commit/80fa26c74279fced8d778351cff19d1d8f44fe4e
http://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.