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Fencer Intel
high 7.3

CVE-2019-14869 json

A flaw was found in all versions of ghostscript 9.x before 9.50, where the `.charkeys` procedure, where it did not properly secure its priv…

published 6y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-5984

cvss
7.3
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.1%
EPSS 3.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in all versions of ghostscript 9.x before 9.50, where the `.charkeys` procedure, where it did not properly secure its privileged calls, enabling scripts to bypass `-dSAFER` restrictions. An attacker could abuse this flaw by creating a specially crafted PostScript file that could escalate privileges within the Ghostscript and access files outside of restricted areas or execute commands.

Patch / fix

  • artifex ghostscript 9.50
  • ghostscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 9.50~dfsg-3

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2019-14869

  • ghostscript Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.12
  • ghostscript Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.12

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2019-14869

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 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • libgs RHEL 8 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • ghostscript-x11 RHEL 8 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • ghostscript-tools-fonts RHEL 8 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • ghostscript-tools-dvipdf RHEL 8 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • ghostscript-tools-printing RHEL 8 9.25-5.el8_1.1
  • ghostscript RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.3
  • libgs RHEL 7 9.25-2.el7_7.3

red hat advisories RHSA-2020:0222RHSA-2019:3890RHSA-2019:3888

  • ghostscript SLES for SAP 12 SP5, SLES for SAP 12 SP4, SLES for SAP 12 SP3 +17 more 9.27-23.31.1
  • ghostscript SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 9.27-3.24.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:2983-1SUSE-SU-2019:2981-1

  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.9.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.1 9.27-lp151.3.9.1
  • ghostscript openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.26.1
  • ghostscript-mini openSUSE Leap 15.0 9.27-lp150.2.26.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:2535-1openSUSE-SU-2019:2534-1

  • ghostscript Alpine 3.10 9.27-r5
  • ghostscript Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +11 more 9.50-r0
  • ghostscript Alpine 3.9 9.26-r5

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2019-14869

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-1069

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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-2019-14869 updated cvss 7.3

ghostscript: -dSAFER escape in .charkeys (701841)

  • Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) ghostscript-x11 9.25-5.el8_1.1, ghostscript-tools-fonts 9.25-5.el8_1.1, ghostscript-tools-dvipdf 9.25-5.el8_1.1, ghostscript-tools-printing 9.25-5.el8_1.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) libgs 9.25-5.el8_1.1, ghostscript 9.25-5.el8_1.1
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:3890
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream E4S (v. 8.0) libgs 9.25-2.el8_0.4, ghostscript 9.25-2.el8_0.4
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2020:0222
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Client Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ComputeNode Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.3
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation (v. 7) libgs 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript 9.25-2.el7_7.3, ghostscript-cups 9.25-2.el7_7.3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation Optional (v. 7) ghostscript-gtk 9.25-2.el7_7.3
    fixed: vendor fix “Please refer to the "Mitigation" section of CVE-2018-16509 : https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2018-16509” RHSA-2019:3888
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2 ghostscript Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ghostscript Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ghostscript, ghostscript-gtk
    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

3.09% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

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 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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

  • Ghostscript ghostscript

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-648 Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
  • CWE-732 Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource

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.