CVE-2016-7978

ghostscript: reference leak in .setdevice allows use-after-free and remote code execution

Severity Score

9.8

*CVSS v3

Exploit Likelihood

*EPSS

Affected Versions

*CPE

Public Exploits

*Multiple Sources

Exploited in Wild

*KEV

Decision

*SSVC

Descriptions

Use-after-free vulnerability in Ghostscript 9.20 might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to a reference leak in .setdevice.

Vulnerabilidad de uso después de la liberación de Ghostscript 9.20 podría permitir a atacantes remotos ejecutar código arbitrario a través de vectores relacionados con una fuga de referencia en .setdevice.

It was found that the ghostscript function .setdevice suffered a use-after-free vulnerability due to an incorrect reference count. A specially crafted postscript document could trigger code execution in the context of the gs process.

The Ghostscript suite contains utilities for rendering PostScript and PDF documents. Ghostscript translates PostScript code to common bitmap formats so that the code can be displayed or printed. Security Fix: It was found that the ghostscript functions getenv, filenameforall and .libfile did not honor the -dSAFER option, usually used when processing untrusted documents, leading to information disclosure. A specially crafted postscript document could read environment variable, list directory and retrieve file content respectively, from the target.

*Credits: N/A

CVSS Scores

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

High

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

Required

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

Low

Integrity

Low

Availability

Low

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Authentication

None

Confidentiality

Partial

Integrity

Partial

Availability

Partial

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

High

Authentication

None

Confidentiality

Partial

Integrity

Partial

Availability

Partial

* Common Vulnerability Scoring System

SSVC

Decision:-

Exploitation

Automatable

Tech. Impact

* Organization's Worst-case Scenario

Timeline

2016-09-09 CVE Reserved
2017-01-04 CVE Published
2024-08-06 CVE Updated
2025-03-30 EPSS Updated
---------- Exploited in Wild
---------- KEV Due Date
---------- First Exploit

CWE

CWE-416: Use After Free

CAPEC

References (8)

URL	Tag	Source
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95336	Third Party Advisory

URL	Date	SRC

URL	Date	SRC
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/05/15	2018-01-05
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697179	2018-01-05

URL	Date	SRC
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0013.html	2018-01-05
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3691	2018-01-05
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-31	2018-01-05
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-7978	2017-01-04
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1382300	2017-01-04

Affected Vendors, Products, and Versions

Vendor		Product				Version		Other		Status
Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status	<-- -->	Vendor	Product	Version	Other	Status
Artifex Search vendor "Artifex"		Ghostscript Search vendor "Artifex" for product "Ghostscript"				9.20 Search vendor "Artifex" for product "Ghostscript" and version "9.20"		-		Affected