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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.5

CVE-2018-16539 json

In Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24, attackers able to supply crafted PostScript files could use incorrect access checking in temp file hand…

published 2018-09-05 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8348

cvss
5.5
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.4%
EPSS 1.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 73%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24, attackers able to supply crafted PostScript files could use incorrect access checking in temp file handling to disclose contents of files on the system otherwise not readable.

Patch / fix

  • artifex ghostscript 9.24
  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.22~dfsg-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16539

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.13
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.9
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 9.22~dfsg+1-0ubuntu1.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2018-16539

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.07-31.el7_6.1
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 7 9.07-31.el7_6.1
  • ghostscript-cups RHEL 7 9.07-31.el7_6.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2018:3650

  • ghostscript SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL, SLED 12 SP3 +9 more 9.25-23.13.1
  • ghostscript SLE Module for Basesystem 15 9.25-3.6.1
  • libspectre SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 0.2.8-3.2.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2018:2975-3SUSE-SU-2018:2975-2SUSE-SU-2018:2975-1SUSE-SU-2018:2976-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.54.0-2.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10783-1

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-2018-16539 updated cvss 5.3

ghostscript: incorrect access checking in temp file handling to disclose contents of files (699658)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ghostscript Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ghostscript, ghostscript-gtk
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.1
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.1
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2018:3650
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 libgs, ghostscript, ghostscript-x11, ghostscript-tools-fonts, ghostscript-tools-dvipdf, ghostscript-tools-printing
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

1.44% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 73% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 5.5 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
NVD 2.0 4.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-200 Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor

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.