Assessment
Why it matters
CISA lists this vulnerability as known to be exploited; exploitation is confirmed; EPSS is 96.1%; technical severity is CVSS 7.8.
Artifex Ghostscript through 2017-04-26 allows -dSAFER bypass and remote command execution via .rsdparams type confusion with a "/OutputFile (%pipe%" substring in a crafted .eps document that is an input to the gs program, as exploited in the wild in April 2017.
Who should care
- Teams operating Ghostscript, Debian Linux, Enterprise Linux Desktop +5 more
- Vulnerability and exposure management teams
- Security operations teams monitoring exploitation activity
Response plan
What I would do
- Confirm whether Ghostscript, Debian Linux, Enterprise Linux Desktop +5 more is present in the environment.
- Identify affected versions and establish whether vulnerable services are exposed or reachable.
- Red Hat Security patch Show Bug.cgi
- Review relevant security telemetry for evidence of attempted or successful exploitation.
- Document the remediation decision and track it to verified completion.
Treatment intelligence
Remediation intelligence
Vendor sources are listed before government and third-party guidance. Confirm product applicability and change prerequisites before deployment.
Verification noteAutomated link verification has not completed for this guidance yet.
Patch
Technical details
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CWE
- CWE-704
- Affected versions
- Artifex Ghostscript (End Excluding 9.21); Debian Debian Linux (Version 8.0); Redhat Enterprise Linux Desktop (Version 6.0 | Version 7.0); Redhat Enterprise Linux Eus (Version 7.3 | Version 7.4 | Version 7.5 | Version 7.6); Redhat Enterprise Linux Server (Version 6.0 | Version 7.0); Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Aus (Version 7.3 | Version 7.4 | Version 7.6 | Version 7.7); Redhat Enterprise Linux Server Tus (Version 7.3 | Version 7.6 | Version 7.7); Redhat Enterprise Linux Workstation (Version 6.0 | Version 7.0)
- Fixed versions
- Artifex Ghostscript (Fixed from 9.21)
- Published
- 26 April 2017
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
Signal timeline
- CVE published
- Added to CISA KEV
- Latest EPSS score: 96.1%
- Signal calculated at 82
External references
- Red Hat Third-party advisory RHSA-2017:1230
- CISA Government advisory CVE-2017-8291
- Securityfocus Third-party advisory
- Bugs Ghostscript Third-party advisory Show Bug.cgi
- Exploit information from bugzilla.suse.com
- Git Ghostscript Technical reference
- Security Gentoo Third-party advisory 201708 06
- Exploit information from www.exploit-db.com