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…

Critical · published March 31, 2023

CVSS v3.1
9.8
EPSS
6%
Percentile
93.6
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

🚨 A sneaky buffer overflow in Artifex Ghostscript is lurking in the shadows! This could lead to a catastrophic data corruption, and it's time to take action! 🔥 Think of it like a filling station where a gas pump overflows when you try to add just one more drop of fuel—it spills over and causes a mess instead of just filling up the tank. That’s what happens in Ghostscript when the write buffer gets filled just short of its limit, leading to unexpected outcomes. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to corrupt the internal data of the PostScript interpreter, potentially causing erratic behavior or crashes. In a worst-case scenario, this could lead to data loss or integrity issues, impacting applications relying on Ghostscript. This is absolutely devastating for systems that use it for document processing!

Put simply

Think of it like a filling station where a gas pump overflows when you try to add just one more drop of fuel—it spills over and causes a mess instead of just filling up the tank. That’s what happens in Ghostscript when the write buffer gets filled just short of its limit, leading to unexpected outcomes. This buffer overflow vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript occurs when writing to a buffer that is not adequately sized, specifically in the functions BCPEncode, BCPDecode, TBCPEncode, and TBCPDecode. Attempting to write an escaped character when the buffer is one byte short causes an overflow, compromising data integrity.

What to do

An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to corrupt the internal data of the PostScript interpreter, potentially causing erratic behavior or crashes. In a worst-case scenario, this could lead to data loss or integrity issues, impacting applications relying on Ghostscript. This is absolutely devastating for systems that use it for document processing! To mitigate this risk, immediately patch your Ghostscript installation to version 10.01.1 or later. Review your application dependencies to ensure they are updated. Additionally, consider enabling buffer overflow protections in your codebase as an extra layer of security. You've got this! Follow these steps, and you'll close this vulnerability with confidence! 🛡️

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
9.8 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.06341 · 93.6th percentile
Published
2023-03-31T00:00Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 31 MAR 00:00Z
    In Artifex Ghostscript through 10.01.0, there is a buffer overflow leading to potential corruption of data internal to the PostScript interpreter, in…
    cvelistv5