Buffer Overflow in pocketsphinx
Summary
Vulnerability in pocketsphinx (CVE-2026-54559). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via sscanf. Mitigation: upgrade to 5.1.1 or later.
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-54559 has been found in pocketsphinx.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like sscanf over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
What to do: upgrade pocketsphinx to 5.1.1 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "pocketsphinx CVE-2026-54559" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-54559 (pocketsphinx) — CWE-119
Attack surface: sscanf / POCKETSPHINX_PATH
Patched: 5.1.1 — apply immediately
Workaround: Ensure that the POCKETSPHINX_PATH environment variable is either unset, or set to a directory whose contents are trusted and which cannot be written by untrusted users.
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-119) exists in pocketsphinx. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via sscanf.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of pocketsphinx. Attack surface: sscanf / POCKETSPHINX_PATH.
Severity: ?. Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to 5.1.1.
Workaround: Ensure that the POCKETSPHINX_PATH environment variable is either unset, or set to a directory whose contents are trusted and which cannot be written by untrusted users.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'pocketsphinx' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1
Identify exposureidentify
grep -r 'pocketsphinx' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
pocketsphinxを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2
Apply temporary workaroundmitigate
Ensure that the `POCKETSPHINX_PATH` environment variable is either unset, or set to a directory whose contents are trusted and which cannot be written by untrusted users.パッチが適用されるまでの応急処置として、Ensure that the
POCKETSPHINX_PATHenvironment variable is either unset, or set to a directory whose contents are trusted and which cannot be written by untrusted users. を実施。回避策の副作用 (機能低下) を確認した上で。 -
3
Apply patchpatch
Upgrade pocketsphinx to 5.1.1ステージング環境で 5.1.1 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
4
Post-deployment verificationverify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| pip | pocketsphinx |
< 5.1.1 |
5.1.1 |
| PyPI | pocketsphinx |
< 5.1.1 |
5.1.1 |
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Ubuntu UBUNTU-CVE-2026-54559 pocketsphinx
Original description The description as published by the source.
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 whose contents are trusted and which cannot be written by untrusted users.
Source: GitHub Security Advisories (Global) NVD GitHub Advisory
References
- advisory github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package github.com
- package pypi.org
- web github.com
- web github.com
- web security-advisories@github.com