CVE-2018-16510

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24. Incorrect exec stack handling in the "CS" and "SC" PDF primitives could be used by remote attackers able to supply crafted PDFs to crash the interpreter or possibly have unspecified other impact.

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-2018-16510 is rated Moderate Risk (58.9/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 1.75%). EPSS rose +1.52% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2018-16510

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 2026-06-15 0.22% 1.75% +1.52%
2 2025-12-28 0.26% 0.22% -0.04%
3 2025-12-27 — 0.26% —

Full EPSS history (15 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2018-16510

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]
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P 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:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
 8.6 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2018-16510

OS Trackers for CVE-2018-16510

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2018-16510: 1 source package rows (ghostscript); 15 state rows across 5 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 0, open 15. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2018-16510
debian not yet assigned CVE-2018-16510 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-2018-16510
gentoo normal CVE-2018-16510: 1 GLSA(s) (201811-12), 1 atom(s) (app-text/ghostscript-gpl); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2018-16510
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-16510
suse medium CVE-2018-16510 severity moderate: SUSE including 41 source package names (ghostscript-10.05.0-160000.2.2, ghostscript-9.25-23.13.1, …), 129 product×package rows across 57 product lines (SLES for SAP Applications 11 SP3, SUSE Enterprise Storage 4, … (57 product lines)): Fixed 114, Known Not Affected 15. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-16510/
ubuntu medium CVE-2018-16510 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ghostscript), 4 status rows across 4 suites (bionic, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1, needs-triage 1, not-affected 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2018-16510

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2018-16510

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
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:*:*:*
artifex gpl_ghostscript < 9.26 cpe:2.3:a:artifex:gpl_ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2018-16510

cvelogic Threat Intelligence