Inclusion of cleartext password into protected PDF file in Artifex Ghostscript

1) Cleartext storage of sensitive information

EUVDB-ID: #VU109790

Risk: Medium

CVSSv4.0: 2.9 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:L/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/U:Green]

CVE-ID: CVE-2025-48708

CWE-ID: CWE-312 - Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information

Exploit availability: Yes

Description

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to read PDF documents protected with a password.

The vulnerability exists due to an error within the gs_lib_ctx_stash_sanitized_arg() function in base/gslibctx.c caused by incorrect sanitization of arguments for the # case. As a result, a created PDF document includes its password in cleartext.

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Ghostscript: 9.00 - 10.05.0

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:artifex_software:ghostscript:9.00:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:artifex_software:ghostscript:9.01:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:artifex_software:ghostscript:9.02:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

External links

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2025/05/23/2
https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708446
https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/ghostpdl.git/commit/?id=b587663c623b4462f9e78686a31fd880207303ee

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, proof of concept for this vulnerability is available.