Main Vulnerability Database Vulnerabilities #VU20468

Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls in Ghostscript - CVE-2019-14811

Published: August 29, 2019 / Updated: June 20, 2025

Vulnerability identifier: #VU20468

CSH Severity: Low

CVSS v4: 2 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2019-14811

CWE-ID: CWE-264

Exploitation vector: Remote access

Exploit availability: Public exploit is available

Vulnerability details

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to bypass implemented security restrictions.

The vulnerability exists due to unrestricted access to .forceput in .pdf_hook_DSC_Creator. A remote attacker can create a specially crafted PDF file, trick the victim to open it and gain access to arbitrary files on the system.

Affected software

Ghostscript
Arch Linux
Gentoo Linux
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
Opensuse
Fedora
ghostscript (Alpine package)
ghostscript (Debian package)
ghostscript (Ubuntu package)
ghostscript

How to mitigate CVE-2019-14811

Install update from vendor's website.

Ghostscript - update to 9.50
ghostscript (Alpine package) - update to 9.26-r4
ghostscript (Debian package) - addressed in versions 9.26a~dfsg-0+deb9u5, 9.27~dfsg-2+deb10u2
ghostscript (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.11, 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.11, 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu7.3
ghostscript - addressed in versions 9.27-1.fc29, 9.27-1.fc30, 9.27-1.fc31

Links to Public Exploits and PoC-codes

Exploit #11681 - CVE-2019-14811-in-pdf-exploit (This exploit targets CVE-2019-14811 in GS environments where PostScript output is not reflected, but is executed such as PDF previews via png images.) (June 20, 2025)

External References

http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git;h=885444fcbe10dc42787ecb76686c8ee4dd33bf33