Skip to content
Fencer Intel
high 7.3

CVE-2019-14817 json

A flaw was found in, ghostscript versions prior to 9.50, in the .pdfexectoken and other procedures where it did not properly secure its pri…

published 7y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-5946

cvss
7.3
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 81%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in, ghostscript versions prior to 9.50, in the .pdfexectoken and other procedures where it did not properly secure its privileged calls, enabling scripts to bypass `-dSAFER` restrictions. A specially crafted PostScript file could disable security protection and then have access to the file system, or execute arbitrary commands.

Patch / fix

  • artifex ghostscript 9.50
  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.28~~rc2~dfsg-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-14817

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.11
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.11

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-14817

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 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • libgs RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-x11 RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-fonts RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-dvipdf RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript-tools-printing RHEL 8 9.25-2.el8_0.3
  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.2
  • libgs RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2019:2591RHSA-2019:2586

  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +18 more 9.27-23.28.1
  • ghostscript SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 9.27-3.21.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2478-1SUSE-SU-2019:2460-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 9.54.0-2.2
  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.6.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.6.1
  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.23.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.23.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10783-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2223-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2222-1

  • ghostscript Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +12 more 9.27-r4
  • ghostscript Alpine 3.9, Alpine 3.8, Alpine 3.7 9.26-r4

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-14817

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 9.50-1

arch linux advisories AVG-1031

Is CVE-2019-14817 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

Check with Fencer

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-2019-14817 updated cvss 7.3

ghostscript: Safer mode bypass by .forceput exposure in .pdfexectoken and other procedures (701450)

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ghostscript Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ghostscript, ghostscript-gtk
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management 2.6 3scale-amp26/zync 1.9-28, 3scale-amp26/backend 1.9-24, 3scale-amp26/toolbox latest, 3scale-amp26/operator latest, 3scale-amp26/3scale-operator latest, 3scale-amp26/apicast-gateway 1.15-9
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2534
  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) ghostscript-x11 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-fonts 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-dvipdf 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript-tools-printing 9.25-2.el8_0.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libgs 9.25-2.el8_0.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el8_0.3
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2591
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.2, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2019:2586
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2 ghostscript
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

2.03% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 81% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • bugzilla.redhat.com https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14817 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 7.3 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 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

Affected products

  • Artifex Software ghostscript

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-648 Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization

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.