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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2016-7979 json

Ghostscript before 9.21 might allow remote attackers to bypass the SAFER mode protection mechanism and consequently execute arbitrary code…

published 2017-05-23 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2016-8827

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
6.4%
EPSS 6.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Ghostscript before 9.21 might allow remote attackers to bypass the SAFER mode protection mechanism and consequently execute arbitrary code by leveraging type confusion in .initialize_dsc_parser.

Patch / fix

  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.19~dfsg-3.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2016-7979

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.5
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.2

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2016-7979

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ghostscript RHEL 6 8.70-21.el6_8.1
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 6 8.70-21.el6_8.1
  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.1
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.1
  • ghostscript-cups RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:0014RHSA-2017:0013

  • ghostscript-library SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +7 more 8.62-32.38.1
  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12, SLES 12-LTSS +3 more 9.15-11.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2016:2493-1SUSE-SU-2016:2492-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.20-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10003-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2016-7979 updated cvss 5.8

ghostscript: Type confusion in .initialize_dsc_parser allows remote code execution

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ghostscript Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 2 ghostscript
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0013
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-21.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-21.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-21.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-21.el6_8.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-21.el6_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0014
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0013
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-21.el6_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0014
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0013
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-21.el6_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0014
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.1, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0013
show 2 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-21.el6_8.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0014
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:0013

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

6.42% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 7.5 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-704 Incorrect Type Conversion or Cast

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.