Tesseract: Double free and use after free in the PAGE XML renderer on right-to-left pages
Affects Tesseract 5.4.0 through 5.5.3 and main at the time, when the PAGE XML renderer processes upright Hebrew or Arabic (right-to-left) pages with default settings. Fixed in 5.5.4.
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Fix
- Fixed in 5.5.4
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
Tesseract, an open source OCR (optical character recognition) engine, is affected when it generates PAGE XML output for right-to-left text such as Hebrew or Arabic. The flaw can cause memory corruption that may crash the program or produce incorrect text-region coordinates in the output.
Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.
Read the original description
Tesseract is an open source OCR engine. From 5.4.0 until 5.5.4, AppendLinePolygon in src/api/pagerenderer.cpp destroys the caller-owned right-to-left Pta accumulator while receiving it by value, leaving line_top_rtl_pts and line_bottom_rtl_pts dangling. On an upright Hebrew or Arabic page at the default PAGE XML level, POLYGONFLAG with a false skewed_flag enters the vulnerable calls, while LEVELFLAG greater than zero provides an alternative gate. The calls repeatedly read and free the stale object, causing a double free and use after free and allowing corrupted coordinates to reach RecalcPolygonline. This issue is fixed in version 5.5.4.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- tesseract-ocr tesseract
From 5.4.0 · fixed in 5.5.4
References 4
GitHub · tesseract-ocr/tesseract
Questions about CVE-2026-119338
What does this mean?
The bug is a double free and a use-after-free on a heap object in the PAGE XML renderer, which corrupts memory. Whether it can be turned into anything more on glibc was not demonstrated, and the outcome depends on the allocator and timing.Source: github.com
Am I affected, and how do I check?
Versions 5.4.0 through 5.5.3 and the main branch at the time are listed as affected. The reported setup is an upright Hebrew or Arabic page processed by the PAGE XML renderer with the shipped defaults (page_xml_polygon true, page_xml_level 0). To check a installation, run tesseract --version for the version and review the page_xml_polygon and page_xml_level settings.Source: github.com
What should I do about it?
Upgrade to Tesseract 5.5.4 or later, which is the first fixed release listed for this product.Source: github.com
Is it being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data