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Fencer Vulns
high 7.3

CVE-2019-14811 json

A flaw was found in, ghostscript versions prior to 9.50, in the .pdf_hook_DSC_Creator procedure where it did not properly secure its privil…

published 2019-09-03 7 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2019-5940

cvss
7.3
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.7%
EPSS 3.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in, ghostscript versions prior to 9.50, in the .pdf_hook_DSC_Creator procedure where it did not properly secure its privileged calls, enabling scripts to bypass `-dSAFER` restrictions. A specially crafted PostScript file could disable security protection and then have access to the file system, or execute arbitrary commands.

Patch / fix

  • artifex ghostscript 9.50
  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.28~~rc2~dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-14811

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.11
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.11

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-14811

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 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • libgs RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-x11 RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-fonts RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-dvipdf RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-printing RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.2
  • libgs RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2591RHSA-2019:2586

  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +18 more 9.27-23.28.1
  • ghostscript SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 9.27-3.21.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2478-1SUSE-SU-2019:2460-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.54.0-2.2
  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.6.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.6.1
  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.23.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.23.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10783-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2223-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2222-1

  • ghostscript Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +12 more 9.27-r3
  • ghostscript Alpine 3.9, Alpine 3.8, Alpine 3.7 9.26-r4

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-14811

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ghostscript Arch Linux 9.50-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1031

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-2019-14811 updated cvss 7.3

ghostscript: Safer mode bypass by .forceput exposure in .pdf_hook_DSC_Creator (701445)

  • 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 3scale API Management 2.6 3scale-amp26/zync 1.9-28, 3scale-amp26/backend 1.9-24, 3scale-amp26/toolbox latest, 3scale-amp26/operator latest, 3scale-amp26/3scale-operator latest, 3scale-amp26/apicast-gateway 1.15-9
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:2534
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) ghostscript-x11 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-fonts 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-dvipdf 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-printing 9.25-2.el8_0.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libgs 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el8_0.3
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:2591
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:2586
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2 ghostscript
    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

3.75% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.redhat.com https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14811 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.3 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/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

Affected products

  • Artifex Software ghostscript

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-648 Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

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.