# CVE-2026-119338: Tesseract: Double free and use after free in the PAGE XML renderer on right-to-left pages


- **Severity:** Medium 6.9 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:L/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Nov 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-119338, ECHO-19df-2947-e8e1, GHSA-vf7v-2h4f-6f4j, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-119338

## What is CVE-2026-119338?

CVE-2026-119338 is a medium-severity vulnerability in tesseract-ocr tesseract, published on 30 Oct 2026. 

### Official 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.

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free), CWE-415 (Double Free), CWE-125 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-119338?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-119338?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2026-119338 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-119338 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-119338 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-119338 is a medium-severity vulnerability in tesseract-ocr tesseract, published on 30 Oct 2026. 
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-119338 exists.

Affected product: tesseract-ocr tesseract. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119338/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119338/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-119338
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-119338
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-119338

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119338/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.