Ghostscript up to 9.26 Internal Dictionary access control

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
6.0	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Ghostscript up to 9.26. It has been classified as critical. This impacts an unknown function of the component Internal Dictionary. Performing a manipulation results in access control. This vulnerability is reported as CVE-2019-3835. The attack requires a local approach. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Ghostscript up to 9.26 (Document Processing Software). It has been classified as critical. This affects an unknown code block of the component Internal Dictionary. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a access control vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-284. The product does not restrict or incorrectly restricts access to a resource from an unauthorized actor. This is going to have an impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

It was found that the superexec operator was available in the internal dictionary in ghostscript before 9.27. A specially crafted PostScript file could use this flaw in order to, for example, have access to the file system outside of the constrains imposed by -dSAFER.

The bug was discovered 03/21/2019. The weakness was disclosed 03/25/2019 by Cedric Buissart with Red Hat as confirmed bug report (Bugzilla). It is possible to read the advisory at bugzilla.redhat.com. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2019-3835 since 01/03/2019. It is possible to initiate the attack remotely. No form of authentication is needed for exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1068 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

The vulnerability was handled as a non-public zero-day exploit for at least 4 days. During that time the estimated underground price was around $0-$5k. The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 240001 (TencentOS Server 3: ghostscript (TSSA-2022:0123)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment. The commercial vulnerability scanner Qualys is able to test this issue with plugin 157941 (Oracle Enterprise Linux Security Update for ghostscript (ELSA-2019-0633)).

Upgrading to version 9.27 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (240001) and SecurityFocus (BID 107855†). The entry VDB-132208 is pretty similar. Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Document Processing Software

Name

• Ghostscript

Version

• 9.0
• 9.1
• 9.2
• 9.3
• 9.4
• 9.5
• 9.6
• 9.7
• 9.8
• 9.9
• 9.10
• 9.11
• 9.12
• 9.13
• 9.14
• 9.15
• 9.16
• 9.17
• 9.18
• 9.19
• 9.20
• 9.21
• 9.22
• 9.23
• 9.24
• 9.25
• 9.26

License

• free

CPE 2.3info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CPE 2.2info

• 🔍
• 🔍
• 🔍

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 6.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 6.0

VulDB Base Score: 5.3
VulDB Temp Score: 5.1
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 5.5
NVD Vector: 🔍

CNA Base Score: 7.3
CNA Vector (Red Hat, Inc.): 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Access control
CWE: CWE-284 / CWE-266
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Yes

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Nessus ID: 240001
Nessus Name: TencentOS Server 3: ghostscript (TSSA-2022:0123)

Qualys ID: 🔍
Qualys Name: 🔍

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Upgrade: Ghostscript 9.27

Timelineinfo

01/03/2019 🔍
03/21/2019 +77 days 🔍
03/21/2019 +0 days 🔍
03/25/2019 +4 days 🔍
03/26/2019 +1 days 🔍
06/17/2025 +2275 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: RHSA-2019:0652
Researcher: Cedric Buissart
Organization: Red Hat
Status: Confirmed
Confirmation: 🔍

CVE: CVE-2019-3835 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2019-3835
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-132207
SecurityFocus: 107855 - Ghostscript CVE-2019-3835 Security Bypass Vulnerability

See also: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 03/26/2019 13:56
Updated: 06/17/2025 16:23
Changes: 03/26/2019 13:56 (63), 05/19/2020 21:03 (6), 08/07/2023 09:45 (4), 08/07/2023 09:46 (12), 06/17/2025 16:23 (16)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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Discussion

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