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GhostscriptApplication · Artifex

CVE-2024-29509

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-07-03
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 10.03.0 or later.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

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 before 10.03.0 has a heap-based overflow when PDFPassword (e.g., for runpdf) has a \000 byte in the middle.

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

Artifex Ghostscript before version 10.03.0 contains a heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the PDFPassword handling logic (used by runpdf). When a PDF password contains a null byte (\000) in the middle of the string, the underlying memory copy operation overflows the allocated heap buffer, potentially allowing arbitrary code execution or denial of service.

MitigationUpgrade to Ghostscript version 10.03.0 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict access to Ghostscript's PDF processing capabilities and sanitize PDFPassword inputs to prevent null byte injection.

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
GhostscriptApplication
Affected:< 10.03.0

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
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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. Determine installed Ghostscript version
    Run 'gs --version' or check the package manager for ghostscript version (e.g., dpkg -l ghostscript, rpm -q ghostscript)
    Affected if The version number is less than 10.03.0 (e.g., 10.02.0, 10.01.0, 10.00.x, or any 9.x version)
  2. Identify if PDFPassword feature is accessible
    Check if the 'runpdf' operator or PDF processing functionality is available in your Ghostscript installation; attempt to load a PDF with gs -dNOSAFER -sPDFPassword=... or check if PDF-related devices are enabled (ls -la /usr/lib/ghostscript/*/lib/pdf*.so 2>/dev/null)
    Affected if PDF processing capabilities including password handling are enabled and accessible to your applications or users
  3. Audit applications using Ghostscript for PDF handling
    Review web applications, document processing systems, or print workflows that invoke Ghostscript; search codebases for calls to gs, ghostscript, or the runpdf operator with PDF input handling
    Affected if Applications pass PDF files to Ghostscript for processing, especially where password-protected PDFs are handled or where user-supplied content becomes PDF input
  4. Check for exploitation indicators in logs
    Review Ghostscript-related logs, application logs, and system logs for unusual crashes, memory errors, or unexpected behavior when processing PDF files; look for segfaults, abort messages, or sanitizer warnings involving heap buffer overflows
    Affected if Logs show crashes or memory corruption errors during PDF processing with password parameters

Your environment is affected if Ghostscript version is below 10.03.0 AND PDF password handling (runpdf) is being used to process password-protected PDF files.

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 10.03.0 or later
Fixed in 10.03.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Ghostscript version 10.03.0 or later. If immediate upgrade is not feasible, restrict access to Ghostscript's PDF processing capabilities and sanitize PDFPassword inputs to prevent null byte injection.

Recommended fix High confidence

Ghostscript 10.03.0 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current Ghostscript version installed on your system using 'gs --version' or equivalent.
  2. 2. If the installed version is earlier than 10.03.0, obtain Ghostscript version 10.03.0 or later from the official Ghostscript distribution (git.ghostscript.com or official download channels).
  3. 3. Install the updated Ghostscript package following your system's standard installation procedures.
  4. 4. Verify the installation was successful by running 'gs --version' and confirming it reports 10.03.0 or higher.
  5. 5. Test that any workflows relying on PDFPassword functionality work correctly with the updated version.

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

Fix this in Ghostscript Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
22.0 hours of engineering $3,800
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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-2024-29509 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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