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Fencer Vulns
high 7.8

CVE-2018-16540 json

In Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24, attackers able to supply crafted PostScript files to the builtin PDF14 converter could use a use-after-…

published 2018-09-05 8 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2018-8349

cvss
7.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
1.6%
EPSS 1.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 75%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

In Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24, attackers able to supply crafted PostScript files to the builtin PDF14 converter could use a use-after-free in copydevice handling to crash the interpreter or possibly have unspecified other impact.

Patch / fix

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

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2018-16540

  • 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-2018-16540

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_6.9
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 7 9.07-31.el7_6.9
  • ghostscript-cups RHEL 7 9.07-31.el7_6.9

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:0229

  • ghostscript SLES 12 SP3, SLES 12 SP2-BCL, SLED 12 SP3 +9 more 9.25-23.13.1
  • ghostscript-library SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +3 more 8.62-32.47.13.1
  • 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-2018:3330-1SUSE-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-2018-16540 updated cvss 7.3

ghostscript: use-after-free in copydevice handling (699661)

  • 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_6.9, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.9, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.9, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM and IBM Power LE (POWER9) Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.9
    +4 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.9, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-31.el7_6.9, ghostscript-cups 9.07-31.el7_6.9 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-31.el7_6.9
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:0229
  • 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

1.56% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 75% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 7.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness

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.