--- a/ChangeLog	
+++ a/ChangeLog	
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@ 
+2006-03-27  David Turner  <david@freetype.org>
+
+	* src/sfnt/ttkern.c (tt_face_get_kerning): fixed a serious bug
+        that caused some programs to go into an infinite loop when dealing
+        with fonts that don't have a properly sorted kerning sub-table
+
 2006-03-26  Werner Lemberg  <wl@gnu.org>
 
 	* src/bdf/bdflib.c (ERRMSG4): New macro.
--- a/src/sfnt/ttkern.c	
+++ a/src/sfnt/ttkern.c	
@@ -246,7 +246,9 @@ 
           }
           else /* linear search */
           {
-            for ( count = num_pairs; count > 0; count-- )
+            FT_UInt  count2;
+
+            for ( count2 = num_pairs; count2 > 0; count2-- )
             {
               FT_ULong  key = FT_NEXT_ULONG( p );