CVE-2018-16509

Exp

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24. Incorrect "restoration of privilege" checking during handling of /invalidaccess exceptions could be used by attackers able to supply crafted PostScript to execute code using the "pipe" instruction.

Published: 2018-09-05 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2018-16509 is rated High Exploit Risk (82.2/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 91.76%, 100th percentile). 3 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +1.15% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2018-16509

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
45369 exploit_db edb 2018-09-10 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-16509

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-03-04 90.61% 91.76% +1.15%
2 2026-03-01 91.76% 90.61% -1.15%
3 2026-02-04 — 91.76% —

Full EPSS history (45 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-16509

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-16509

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-16509

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-16509 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (ghostscript), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2018-16509
gentoo normal CVE-2018-16509: 1 GLSA(s) (201811-12), 1 atom(s) (app-text/ghostscript-gpl); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-16509
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-16509
suse medium CVE-2018-16509 severity moderate: SUSE including 49 source package names (ghostscript, ghostscript-10.05.0-160000.2.2, …), 168 product×package rows across 60 product lines (SUSE Enterprise Storage 4, SUSE Liberty Linux 7, … (60 product lines)): Fixed 164, Known Not Affected 4. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-16509/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-16509 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ghostscript), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-16509

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-16509

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
debian debian_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 9.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
artifex ghostscript < 9.24 cpe:2.3:a:artifex:ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 14.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 16.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.04 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.5 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 6.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:6.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
artifex gpl_ghostscript < 9.26 cpe:2.3:a:artifex:gpl_ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-16509

URL Tags
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=5516c614dc33662a2afdc377159f70218e67bde5
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=78911a01b67d590b4a91afac2e8417360b934156
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=79cccf641486a6595c43f1de1cd7ade696020a31
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=520bb0ea7519aa3e79db78aaf0589dae02103764
http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2018/q3/142 Exploit Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/105122 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:2918 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3760 Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=699654 Issue Tracking Permissions Required Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/09/msg00015.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201811-12 Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3768-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.artifex.com/news/ghostscript-security-resolved/ Vendor Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4294 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45369/ Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
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