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vulnerability / NVI-00016102 / Revision 1

PocketSphinx: Buffer overflows in language and acoustic model loading code

GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for pocketsphinx. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.

source listedactiveGHSA-56r5-2p2f-7cxpCVE-2026-54559

This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.

01 / Meaning

Why it matters

Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.

02 / Applicability

The affected context

Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.

pocketsphinx

source listed
  • < 5.1.1

### Impact The trie language model code introduced in PocketSphinx 5prealpha failed to check various boundary conditions when reading the headers of ARPA, DMP, and binary format language model files. In the case of invalid, corrupted or malicious input files, this could lead to stack and heap buffer overflows. In addition, the acoustic model loading code (which is over 30 years old...) contains numerous instances of `sscanf` with an unbounded string field which could also lead to stack overflows in the case of corrupt or malicious inputs. Because PocketSphinx will search the directory given by the `POCKETSPHINX_PATH` environment variable for acoustic and language model files, if this directory is writable by untrusted users, an attacker could corrupt an existing file or write a malicious one to this directory in order to trigger the vulnerability. ### Patches The problem has been corrected in PocketSphinx 5.1.1. There is no patch currently available for users of Pocketsphinx 5prealpha, who are encouraged to migrate as soon as possible to PocketSphinx 5.1.1. ### Workarounds Ensure that the `POCKETSPHINX_PATH` environment variable is either unset, or set to a directory whos

GitHub Advisory Database

03 / Response

What to do next

  1. investigate

    Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.

    Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database

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04 / Limits

What this report cannot establish

  • Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
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05 / Provenance

Sources you can inspect

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  1. GHSA-56r5-2p2f-7cxp ↗

    GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory

    Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.

Public revision history

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  1. Revision 1 ·

    First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.

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The next step is private

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