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Actively exploited in the wild. This CVE is on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list — treat remediation as urgent. Federal remediation due by 14 Jun 2022.
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2017-8291

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2017-04-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 9.21 or later.
See remediation →
97/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
In the wild High EPSS Public exploit No privileges Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
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.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Ghostscript before 9.22 contains a type confusion vulnerability in .rsdparams handling that bypasses the -dSAFER sandbox, allowing remote command execution via a crafted EPS file containing '/OutputFile (%pipe%' to spawn shell commands.

MitigationUpgrade Ghostscript to version 9.22 or later to patch the vulnerability; alternatively, disable or restrict EPS/PostScript processing in untrusted environments until patching is possible.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 8.0
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4= 7.5= 7.6= 7.7
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.4= 7.6= 7.7
Enterprise Linux Server TusOperating system
Affected:= 7.3= 7.6= 7.7
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 6.0= 7.0
GhostscriptApplication
Affected:< 9.21

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Ghostscript version
    Run 'gs --version' or 'rpm -q ghostscript' (RHEL) or 'dpkg -l ghostscript' (Debian) to determine the installed Ghostscript version
    Affected if The installed version is less than 9.21 (or if you cannot confirm the version is 9.22 or later)
  2. Verify EPS/PostScript processing capability
    Check if Ghostscript is installed by running 'gs --help' or checking for the gs binary in /usr/bin/ or /usr/local/bin/
    Affected if Ghostscript is installed and can process PostScript or EPS files
  3. Identify applications using Ghostscript
    Search for applications or services that process EPS files, review any document conversion tools, print subsystems, or image processing workflows that invoke Ghostscript
    Affected if Any application or service on the system uses Ghostscript to process EPS or PostScript files
  4. Review script or code that invokes Ghostscript
    Search for scripts, web applications, or automated jobs that call gs or ghostscript, and check if they use the -dSAFER flag
    Affected if Found scripts that process untrusted EPS/PostScript content without proper restrictions
  5. Check for presence of crafted EPS test files
    If you have received suspicious EPS files, examine them for the pattern '/OutputFile (%pipe%' which is the exploit indicator
    Affected if Such files exist and have been processed or are pending processing

You are affected if Ghostscript version 9.21 or earlier is installed and your system processes EPS or PostScript files, especially with the -dSAFER protection that can be bypassed by this vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 9.21 or later
Fixed in 9.21
Vendor patch openwall.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Ghostscript to version 9.22 or later to patch the vulnerability; alternatively, disable or restrict EPS/PostScript processing in untrusted environments until patching is possible.

Recommended fix High confidence

Ghostscript 9.21 or later (for Debian 8.0: upgrade to the Jessie LTS security updates or backports containing Ghostscript 9.21+)

  1. 1. Identify the current Ghostscript version installed by running: gs --version
  2. 2. For Debian 8.0: Update the package cache and upgrade Ghostscript: apt-get update && apt-get install ghostscript
  3. 3. For RHEL/CentOS/Enterprise Linux: Run yum update ghostscript or dnf update ghostscript
  4. 4. For systems with independent Ghostscript installations: Download and install Ghostscript 9.21 or later from https://www.ghostscript.com/download/
  5. 5. Verify the fix by running: gs --version and confirming the version is 9.21 or higher
  6. 6. Test that Ghostscript processes .eps files correctly with the updated version
Caveat Minimal risk; upgrading Ghostscript should not break normal PostScript/PDF processing functionality

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Debian Linux Exploited in the wild — priority engagement
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
Get it fixed fast

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-8291 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data