CVE-2023-28879
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,
02 Description
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,
03 Exploitation and scoring
- Exploitation
- Public exploit code exists. CISA's assessment records a public proof of concept. That is not a report of exploitation in the wild.
- SSVC decision
- ExploitationpocPublic proof-of-concept exploit code exists. Not a report of exploitation in the wild.
- AutomatableyesAn attacker can reliably automate reconnaissance through exploitation, so this scales.
- Technical ImpacttotalSuccessful exploitation gives total control of the vulnerable component.
- EPSS probability
- 6.34% probability of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
- EPSS percentile
- Equal to or higher than the score of 93.5% of scored records. A rank, not a probability.
- NVD base score
- 9.8 (CVSS v3.x), scored by the NVD independently of the CNA.
- NVD CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- NVD analysis status
- Modified. NVD last modified this record on 2026-06-17.
- Red Hat severity
- Moderate. Red Hat's rating for its own products, not a CVSS rating.
Exploit-prediction scores from FIRST. Independent scoring and analysis status from the NVD. Vendor severity from Red Hat. Exploitation assessment and catalog membership from CISA.
04 Metadata
- Published
- 2023-03-31 00:00Z3 YR AGO
- Last updated
- 2025-02-14 19:29Z1 YR AGO
- Reserved
- 2023-03-27
- Assigning CNA
- mitre
- Record state
- PUBLISHED
- Severity
- Critical (CVSS 9.8)
- CNA CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weaknesses
- CWE-787Out-of-bounds WriteBase
- Data version
- 5.1
- Document digest
- 0d40a08716b3436a394a1d6b34b97c972658e7b0f1734e295c33a3377ea21a76
05 Affected products
06 References
- bugs.ghostscript.comhttps://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=706494
- git.ghostscript.comhttps://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=37ed5022cecd584de868933b5b60da2e995b3179
- ghostscript.readthedocs.iohttps://ghostscript.readthedocs.io/en/latest/News.html
- lists.debian.org[debian-lts-announce] 20230404 [SECURITY] [DLA 3381-1] ghostscript security updatehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/04/msg00003.html
- www.debian.orgDSA-5383https://www.debian.org/security/2023/dsa-5383
- lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2023-f51bc947bbhttps://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/CI6UCKM3XMK7PYNIRGAVDJ5VKN6XYZOE/
- www.openwall.com[oss-security] 20230412 Ghostscript CVE-2023-28879: "Shell in the Ghost"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/04/12/4
- lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2023-fbf86d8916https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/DHJX62KSRIOBZA6FKONMJP7MEFY7LTH2/
- lists.fedoraproject.orgFEDORA-2023-366850fc87https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/MADLP3GWJFLLFVNZGEDNPMDQR6CCXAHN/
- security.gentoo.orgGLSA-202309-03https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202309-03
07 Fixed in
AlmaLinux 8
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-doc Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-dvipdf Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-fonts Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-printing Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-x11 Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- libgs Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- libgs-devel Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
Source: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
AlmaLinux 9
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-doc Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-dvipdf Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-fonts Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-printing Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-x11 Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- libgs Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- libgs-devel Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
Source: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
CloudLinux 8
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-doc Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-dvipdf Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-fonts Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-tools-printing Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- ghostscript-x11 Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- libgs Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
- libgs-devel Fixed in 9.27-11.el8
Derived from AlmaLinux 8. Partial coverage: only packages taken from AlmaLinux 8 are listed.
Source: CloudLinux errata, CloudLinux Inc. Derived from: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
CloudLinux 9
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-doc Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-dvipdf Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-fonts Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-tools-printing Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- ghostscript-x11 Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- libgs Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
- libgs-devel Fixed in 9.54.0-13.el9
Derived from AlmaLinux 9. Partial coverage: only packages taken from AlmaLinux 9 are listed.
Source: CloudLinux errata, CloudLinux Inc. Derived from: AlmaLinux, AlmaLinux OS. Copyright (c) 2023 AlmaLinux OS. Licensed under MIT License. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 12
- ghostscript Fixed in 10.0.0~dfsg-11
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 13
- ghostscript Fixed in 10.0.0~dfsg-11
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Debian 14
- ghostscript Fixed in 10.0.0~dfsg-11
Source: Debian Security Tracker, the Debian security team. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.18
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.50~dfsg-5ubuntu4.7
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.55.0~dfsg1-0ubuntu5.2
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS
- ghostscript Fixed in 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.14+esm5Available with Ubuntu Pro (Infra-only): https://ubuntu.com/pro
Source: Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Received through OSV.dev. Reformatted by exploit.cc.
A release or ecosystem missing from this list has no record here. It may be unaffected or not covered by the source. Source notices and licences.