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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.3

CVE-2009-0196 json

Heap-based buffer overflow in the big2_decode_symbol_dict function (jbig2_symbol_dict.c) in the JBIG2 decoding library (jbig2dec) in Ghosts…

published 2009-04-16 17 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2009-0205

cvss
9.3
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
7.4%
EPSS 7.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 94%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Heap-based buffer overflow in the big2_decode_symbol_dict function (jbig2_symbol_dict.c) in the JBIG2 decoding library (jbig2dec) in Ghostscript 8.64, and probably earlier versions, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PDF file with a JBIG2 symbol dictionary segment with a large run length value.

Patch / fix

  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 8.64~dfsg-1.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2009-0196

  • ghostscript RHEL 5 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 5 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7

red hat advisories RHSA-2009:0421

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2009-0196 updated cvss 6.8

ghostscript: Missing boundary check in Ghostscript's jbig2dec library

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) ghostscript 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7, ghostscript-gtk 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) ghostscript 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7, ghostscript-gtk 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) ghostscript 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7, ghostscript-gtk 8.15.2-9.4.el5_3.7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:0421

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

7.43% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • osvdb.org http://osvdb.org/53492 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugzilla.redhat.com https://bugzilla.redhat.com/attachment.cgi?id=337747 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 9.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.