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Vulnerability record · CVE-2016-7978 · published 23 May 2017

CVE-2016-7978: Artifex ghostscript use after free vulnerability

Artifex · Ghostscript

Use-after-free vulnerability in Ghostscript 9.20 might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to a reference leak in .setdevice.

9.8 CVSS 3.0 Critical EPSS 5.5% · top 7.5% CWE-416 · Use after free
9.8CVSS 3.0 base score, v2 7.5
5.5%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
12References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in Ghostscript 9.20 might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to a reference leak in .setdevice.

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

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0013.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3691
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/05/15 Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95336 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697179 Issue TrackingPatch
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-31
http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0013.html
http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3691
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/05/15 Mailing ListPatchThird Party Advisory
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95336 Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697179 Issue TrackingPatch
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-31

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

7.8CVE-2017-8291Ghostscript -dSAFER bypass and command execution via type confusionGhostscript through 2017-04-26 contains a type confusion in .rsdparams handling that lets a crafted .eps document bypass the -dSAFER sandbox. A "/Out…KEVEPSS 97%analysed9.9CVE-2021-3781Ghostscript -dSAFER sandbox escape via crafted pipe commandGhostscript's -dSAFER sandbox can be escaped by injecting a specially crafted pipe command, allowing a malicious document to run arbitrary commands a…EPSS 84%analysed9.8CVE-2025-27836Artifex ghostscript classic buffer overflow vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. The BJ10V device has a Print buffer overflow in contrib/japanese/gdev10v.c.EPSS 0.59%9.8CVE-2025-27837Artifex ghostscript path traversal vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. Access to arbitrary files can occur through a truncated path with invalid UTF-8 charac…EPSS 0.61%9.8CVE-2025-27831Artifex ghostscript classic buffer overflow vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. The DOCXWRITE TXTWRITE device has a text buffer overflow via long characters to device…EPSS 0.59%9.8CVE-2025-27832Artifex ghostscript classic buffer overflow vulnerabilityAn issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. The NPDL device has a Compression buffer overflow for contrib/japanese/gdevnpdl.c.EPSS 0.82%9.8CVE-2020-36773Artifex ghostscript use after free vulnerabilityArtifex Ghostscript before 9.53.0 has an out-of-bounds write and use-after-free in devices/vector/gdevtxtw.c (for txtwrite) because a single characte…EPSS 0.88%9.8CVE-2023-28879Artifex ghostscript out-of-bounds write vulnerabilityIn Artifex Ghostscript through 10.01.0, there is a buffer overflow leading to potential corruption of data internal to the PostScript interpreter, in…EPSS 6.3%

Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2016-7978), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.