CVE-2019-6116

Exp

In Artifex Ghostscript through 9.26, ephemeral or transient procedures can allow access to system operators, leading to remote code execution.

Published: 2019-03-21 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2019-6116 is rated High Exploit Risk (78.7/100): CVSS High severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 60.54%, 98th percentile). 5 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2019-6116

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
46242 exploit_db edb 2019-01-24 Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2019-6116

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 2026-05-30 62.50% 60.54% -1.96%
2 2026-05-29 67.51% 62.50% -5.01%
3 2026-03-04 — 67.51% —

Full EPSS history (75 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2019-6116

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/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-2019-6116

OS Trackers for CVE-2019-6116

vendor priority summary link
alpine high CVE-2019-6116: 1 source package rows (ghostscript); 50 state rows across 10 repos (3.10-main, 3.11-main, 3.12-main, 3.17-main, 3.18-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 15, open 35. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2019-6116
debian not yet assigned CVE-2019-6116 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-2019-6116
gentoo normal CVE-2019-6116: 1 GLSA(s) (202004-03), 1 atom(s) (app-text/ghostscript-gpl); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2019-6116
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-6116
suse medium CVE-2019-6116 severity moderate: SUSE including 49 source package names (ghostscript, ghostscript-10.05.0-160000.2.2, …), 237 product×package rows across 90 product lines (SLES for SAP Applications 11 SP2, SLES for SAP Applications 11 SP3, … (90 product lines)): Fixed 141, Known Not Affected 96. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-6116/
ubuntu high CVE-2019-6116 high priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ghostscript), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bionic, cosmic, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2019-6116

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2019-6116

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
artifex ghostscript <= 9.26 cpe:2.3:a:artifex:ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 28 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:28:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 29 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:29:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 30 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:30:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*
canonical ubuntu_linux 18.10 cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
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:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 15.0 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
opensuse leap 42.3 cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:42.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_desktop 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_desktop:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_aus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_aus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_eus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_eus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_server_tus 7.6 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_server_tus:7.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat enterprise_linux_workstation 7.0 cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux_workstation:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2019-6116

URL Tags
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-01/msg00047.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-01/msg00048.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/151307/Ghostscript-Pseudo-Operator-Remote-Code-Execution.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/152367/Slackware-Security-Advisory-ghostscript-Updates.html Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/01/23/5 Exploit Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/03/21/1 Mailing List Patch Third Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/106700 Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2019:0327 Third Party Advisory
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:0229 Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1729 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=700317 Exploit Issue Tracking Patch Third Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/02/msg00016.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6AATIHU32MYKUOXQDJQU4X4DDVL7NAY3/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/7N6T5L3SSJX2AVUPHP7GCPATFWUPKZT2/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MWVAVCDXBLPLJMVGNSKGGDTBEOHCJBKK/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/XVWXVKG72IGEJYHLWE6H3CGALHGFSGGY/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/ZP34D27RKYV2POJ3NJLSVCHUA5V5C45A/
https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Apr/4 Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202004-03 Third Party Advisory
https://usn.ubuntu.com/3866-1/ Third Party Advisory
https://www.debian.org/security/2019/dsa-4372 Third Party Advisory
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/46242/ Exploit Third Party Advisory VDB Entry
cvelogic Threat Intelligence