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Fencer Intel
high 7.8

CVE-2017-8291 kev in the critical feed json

Artifex Ghostscript through 2017-04-26 allows -dSAFER bypass and remote command execution via .rsdparams type confusion with a "/OutputFile…

published 2017-04-27 9 y ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2017-17253

cvss
7.8
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Exploited
added 2022-05-24
epss
97.0%
EPSS 97.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 99.8%
public exploits
2
Metasploit, Exploit-DB

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

cisa required action Apply updates per vendor instructions.

  • artifex ghostscript 9.21
  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.20~dfsg-3.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2017-8291

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.7
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.4

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2017-8291

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 8.70-23.el6_9.2
  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.5
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 6 8.70-23.el6_9.2
  • ghostscript-gtk RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.5
  • ghostscript-cups RHEL 7 9.07-20.el7_3.5

red hat advisories RHSA-2017:1230

  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for SAP 12 +8 more 9.15-22.1
  • ghostscript-library SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP3-TERADATA +4 more 8.62-32.46.1
  • ghostscript-library SLES for SAP 11 SP4, SLES 11 SP4, SLE Software Development Kit 11 SP4 8.62-32.44.1
  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP2, SLES for SAP 12 SP1, SLES for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 +6 more 9.15-20.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2017:1404-1SUSE-SU-2017:1322-1SUSE-SU-2017:1153-1SUSE-SU-2017:1138-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.54.0-2.2

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10783-1

  • ghostscript Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +16 more 9.21-r2
  • ghostscript Alpine 3.5, Alpine 3.4, Alpine 3.3 +1 more 9.21-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2017-8291

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • ghostscript Arch Linux 9.21-2

arch linux advisories AVG-256

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-2017-8291 updated cvss 7.3

ghostscript: corruption of operand stack

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ghostscript
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Enterprise 2 ghostscript
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.5, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.5, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-23.el6_9.2
    +10 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux HPC Node Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.5, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 6) ghostscript 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) ghostscript 9.07-20.el7_3.5, ghostscript-cups 9.07-20.el7_3.5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 6) ghostscript-gtk 8.70-23.el6_9.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.07-20.el7_3.5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2017:1230

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

Timeline

  1. 0-day patched (Project Zero)
  2. First public exploit (Metasploit exploit/unix/fileformat/ghostscript_type_confusion)
  3. Published
  4. Added to CISA KEV
  5. CISA patch deadline
  6. CISA SSVC: exploitation active

Known exploited

Added
4 y ago
Patch by
2022-06-14 (4 y ago)
Ransomware
Not known
Required action
Apply updates per vendor instructions.
Vendor, product
Artifex, Ghostscript
CISA name
Artifex Ghostscript Type Confusion Vulnerability

Zero-day

Detected in real attacks while still unknown to the vendor and the public, per Google Project Zero's 0day In-the-Wild tracker.

Patched
2017-04-27
Details
project zero tracker

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Active, exploited in the wild
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
21 mo ago

Exploit prediction

96.97% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.8% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CISA ADP 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CNA 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-843 Access of Resource Using Incompatible Type

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.