dbcve.org
Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-2018-19409

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-11-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 9.26 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 9.26. LockSafetyParams is not checked correctly if another device is used.

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 · moderate confidence

Ghostscript before version 9.26 contains a flaw where LockSafetyParams, a safety mechanism intended to prevent unsafe PostScript operations, is not correctly validated when an alternate device is used. This allows the safety check to be bypassed, potentially enabling arbitrary code execution through malicious PostScript files.

MitigationUpgrade to Ghostscript version 9.26 or later. For untrusted content processing, consider disabling PostScript interpretation entirely or running Ghostscript in a sandboxed/isolated environment.

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= 9.0
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 14.04= 16.04= 18.04= 18.10
Enterprise Linux DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux ServerOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
Enterprise Linux Server AusOperating system
Affected:= 7.6
Enterprise Linux Server EusOperating system
Affected:= 7.6
Enterprise Linux WorkstationOperating system
Affected:= 7.0
GhostscriptApplication
Affected:< 9.26

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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. Verify Ghostscript is installed
    Run 'gs --version' or 'ghostscript --version' to check if Ghostscript is present on the system
    Affected if If the command returns a version number, Ghostscript is installed and the version determines exposure
  2. Determine installed Ghostscript version
    Execute 'gs --version' and note the output. On Debian/Ubuntu, also run 'dpkg -l | grep ghostscript'. On RHEL, run 'rpm -qa | grep ghostscript'
    Affected if The version shown is the installed version to compare against the affected range
  3. Compare version against affected range
    Check if the installed version is less than 9.26. Ghostscript versions follow semantic versioning (e.g., 9.25, 9.24, 9.23)
    Affected if If the installed version is any release before 9.26 (such as 9.25.x, 9.24.x, or earlier), the system is affected by this vulnerability

A system is affected if Ghostscript is installed with any version prior to 9.26, regardless of configuration, since the flaw exists in the code itself and the safety check can be bypassed by processing malicious PostScript content.

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 9.26 or later
Fixed in 9.26
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Ghostscript version 9.26 or later. For untrusted content processing, consider disabling PostScript interpretation entirely or running Ghostscript in a sandboxed/isolated environment.

Recommended fix High confidence

Ghostscript 9.26 or later

  1. Update your system's package repository metadata
  2. Install the updated ghostscript package using your system's package manager (e.g., apt-get update && apt-get install ghostscript on Debian/Ubuntu, or yum update ghostscript on RHEL/CentOS)
  3. Verify the installed ghostscript version is 9.26 or later by running 'gs --version'
  4. Restart any services or applications that use ghostscript to ensure the new version is loaded

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

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,040
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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-2018-19409 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