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CVE-2018-16509

88
FAUCET Score

CVE-2018-16509 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting Artifex Ghostscript versions prior to 9.24, as well as products from Canonical, Debian, and Red Hat. It stems from improper privilege restoration during /invalidaccess exception handling, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted PostScript using the "pipe" instruction. With a CVSS score of 7.8, this vulnerability has a high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, requiring user interaction but with low attack complexity. While not on the KEV catalog, a Metasploit module exists for exploitation, indicating readily available exploit code, though there is no evidence of active exploitation or significant community discussion.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
8.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9.0CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
< 9.24CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:artifex:ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
14.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
16.04CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.0

7.8HIGH

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Attack Complexity
LOW
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
HIGH
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
HIGH
Exploitability Score
1.8
Impact Score
5.9
CvssVersion
3.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
92.50%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
99.8%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
Metasploit: Ghostscript Failed Restore Command Execution · Aug 21, 2018
ExploitDB: EDB-45369 · Sep 10, 2018
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.9250 is in the 100th percentile among its peer group of 11,616 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.1 Reddit, 0.1 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.3 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (3)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Fixed in: ghostscript-0:8.70-24.el6_10.2
View patch
redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Fixed in: ghostscript-0:9.07-29.el7_5.2
View patch
redhatend of lifevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: ghostscript

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2018-16509Important

ghostscript: /invalidaccess bypass after failed restore (699654)

Aug 21, 2018

References

git.ghostscript.com
git.ghostscript.com
git.ghostscript.com
git.ghostscript.com
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2018:2918
Third Party Advisory
access.redhat.com / errata/RHSA-2018:3760
Third Party Advisory
bugs.ghostscript.com / show_bug.cgi
Issue TrackingPermissions RequiredThird Party Advisory
seclists.org / oss-sec/2018/q3/142
ExploitMailing ListThird Party Advisory
lists.debian.org / debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00015.html
Mailing ListThird Party Advisory
security.gentoo.org / glsa/201811-12
Third Party Advisory
usn.ubuntu.com / 3768-1
Third Party Advisory
artifex.com / news/ghostscript-security-resolved
Vendor Advisory
debian.org / security/2018/dsa-4294
Third Party Advisory
exploit-db.com / exploits/45369
ExploitThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securityfocus.com / bid/105122
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry