CVE-2023-28879

Exp

In Artifex Ghostscript through 10.01.0, there is a buffer overflow leading to potential corruption of data internal to the PostScript interpreter, in base/sbcp.c. This affects BCPEncode, BCPDecode, TBCPEncode, and TBCPDecode. If the write buffer is filled to one byte less than full, and one then tries to write an escaped character, two bytes are written.

Published: 2023-03-31 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2023-28879 is rated High Exploit Risk (81.7/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 6.34%, 93th percentile). 1 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-2023-28879

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2023-28879

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 27.76% 6.34% -21.42%
2 2026-06-10 30.76% 27.76% -3.00%
3 2026-05-13 — 30.76% —

Full EPSS history (52 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2023-28879

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
9.8 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
 3.9 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2023-28879

OS Trackers for CVE-2023-28879

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2023-28879: 1 source package rows (ghostscript); 76 state rows across 6 repos (3.17-main, 3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, edge-main); fixed 1, open 75. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2023-28879
debian not yet assigned CVE-2023-28879 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-2023-28879
gentoo high CVE-2023-28879: 1 GLSA(s) (202309-03), 1 atom(s) (app-text/ghostscript-gpl); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2023-28879
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-28879
suse high CVE-2023-28879 severity important: SUSE including 51 source package names (OpenPrintingPPDs, OpenPrintingPPDs-ghostscript, …), 358 product×package rows across 50 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0, SUSE Enterprise Storage 7, … (50 product lines)): Known Not Affected 223, Fixed 135. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-28879/
ubuntu medium CVE-2023-28879 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (ghostscript), 8 status rows across 8 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, lunar, trusty, upstream, xenial): released 7, ignored 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2023-28879

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2023-28879

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
artifex ghostscript < 10.01.0 cpe:2.3:a:artifex:ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 10.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
debian debian_linux 11.0 cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:11.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2023-28879

URL Tags
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/12/4
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=706494 Exploit Vendor Advisory
https://ghostscript.readthedocs.io/en/latest/News.html Release Notes
https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=37ed5022cecd584de868933b5b60da2e995b3179
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/04/msg00003.html Mailing List Third Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/CI6UCKM3XMK7PYNIRGAVDJ5VKN6XYZOE/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DHJX62KSRIOBZA6FKONMJP7MEFY7LTH2/
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MADLP3GWJFLLFVNZGEDNPMDQR6CCXAHN/
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-03
https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5383 Third Party Advisory
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