Description
Tesseract is an open source OCR engine. Prior to 5.5.3, a crafted .traineddata model loaded through TessBaseAPI::Init can cause SquishedDawg::read_squished_dawg in src/dict/dawg.cpp to accept an unterminated forward-edge run, after which SquishedDawg::Load calls num_forward_edges(0) and last_edge in src/dict/dawg.h reads beyond edges_, causing a heap out-of-bounds read and process crash before image processing. This issue is fixed in version 5.5.3.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| tesseract-ocr | tesseract | < 5.5.3 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | tesseract | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 13 | tesseract | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | tesseract | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | tesseract | No fix yet | — |
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS | tesseract | 5.5.0-1ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS | tesseract | 5.3.4-1ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS | tesseract | 4.1.1-2.1ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | tesseract | 4.1.1-2ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | tesseract | 4.00~git2288-10f4998a-2ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | tesseract | 3.04.01-4ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | tesseract | 3.03.02-3ubuntu0.1~esm1 | USN-8882-1 |
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | tesseract-ocr | 5.5.3-2.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:11887-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | tesseract-ocr | 5.5.3-bp160.1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:21957-1 |
Advisories 3
- USN-8882-1 tesseract vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Oct 6, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:11887-1 libtesseract5-5.5.3-2.1 on GA media SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Sep 25, 2026
- openSUSE-SU-2026:21957-1 Security update for tesseract-ocr SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Sep 25, 2026
References
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/security/advisories/GHSA-x3vq-7rr7-5x3h
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/issues/4580
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/pull/4581
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/commit/55287a94b8044c05ce3fd10f5aca6ebbd238e518
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/commit/82727cc11c34eaf1249af002d69f6bbae70993b9
- https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract/releases/tag/5.5.3