PocketSphinx is a small speech recognizer. Prior to 5.1.1, the trie language-model loaders in src/lm/ngram_model_trie.c do not adequately validate boundary conditions in ARPA, DMP, and binary format headers, and the acoustic-model loaders in src/mdef.c and src/util/bio.c use sscanf with unbounded string fields. Loading an invalid, corrupted, or malicious language or acoustic model can therefore cause stack or heap buffer overflows and memory corruption. An attacker who can write to a directory selected by POCKETSPHINX_PATH can replace or add a model file that PocketSphinx later loads; users of PocketSphinx 5prealpha have no backported patch and must migrate to the fixed release. This issue is fixed in version 5.1.1.

Metrics

Attack Vector Network

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Attack Requirements None

User Interaction None

Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact None

Vulnerable System Integrity Impact Low

Vulnerable System Availability Impact None

Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None

Subsequent System Integrity Impact None

Subsequent System Availability Impact None

No CVSS v3.1

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

The EPSS score is 0.00322.

Exploitation none

Automatable yes

Technical Impact partial

Affected Vendors & Products

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OpenCVE Enrichment is a feature of OpenCVE that uses AI to automatically link vendors and products to CVEs. Learn more on GitHub.

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Advisories
Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-56r5-2p2f-7cxp PocketSphinx: Buffer overflows in language and acoustic model loading code
Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.

Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

References
Link Providers
https://github.com/cmusphinx/pocketsphinx/commit/2a3c03788a9973eff548664334fb781e9f4ad4a5 cve-icon cve-icon
https://github.com/cmusphinx/pocketsphinx/releases/tag/v5.1.1 cve-icon cve-icon
https://github.com/cmusphinx/pocketsphinx/security/advisories/GHSA-56r5-2p2f-7cxp cve-icon cve-icon
History

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 20:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description PocketSphinx is a small speech recognizer. Prior to 5.1.1, the trie language-model loaders in src/lm/ngram_model_trie.c do not adequately validate boundary conditions in ARPA, DMP, and binary format headers, and the acoustic-model loaders in src/mdef.c and src/util/bio.c use sscanf with unbounded string fields. Loading an invalid, corrupted, or malicious language or acoustic model can therefore cause stack or heap buffer overflows and memory corruption. An attacker who can write to a directory selected by POCKETSPHINX_PATH can replace or add a model file that PocketSphinx later loads; users of PocketSphinx 5prealpha have no backported patch and must migrate to the fixed release. This issue is fixed in version 5.1.1.
Title PocketSphinx: Buffer overflows in language and acoustic model loading code
Weaknesses CWE-119
CWE-121
CWE-122
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 6.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-15T19:30:40.884Z

Reserved: 2026-06-15T19:04:14.457Z

Link: CVE-2026-54559

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-09-15T19:30:35.859Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-14T20:16:46.573

Modified: 2026-09-15T20:17:19.793

Link: CVE-2026-54559

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-09-15T12:45:18Z

Weaknesses