Use-after-free in Ghostscript - CVE-2020-16303

Vulnerability identifier: #VU45845

CSH Severity: Medium

CVSS v4: 8.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

CVE-ID: CVE-2020-16303

CWE-ID: CWE-416

Exploitation vector: Remote access

Exploit availability: No public exploit available

The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to compromise vulnerable system.

The vulnerability exists due to a use-after-free error when processing a crafted PDF file in devices/vector/gdevxps.c. A remote attacker can trick the victim to open a specially crafted PDF file, trigger a use-after-free error and execute arbitrary code on the target system.

Successful exploitation of the vulnerability may allow an attacker to compromise vulnerable system.

Ghostscript
Gentoo Linux
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for ARM 64
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for Power, little endian
Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder for x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for ARM 64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, little endian
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64
Ubuntu
ghostscript (Debian package)
ghostscript (Alpine package)
ghostscript (Ubuntu package)
libgs9 (Ubuntu package)
ghostscript (Red Hat package)

Install update from vendor's website.

Ghostscript - update to 9.51
ghostscript (Debian package) - update to 9.27~dfsg-2+deb10u4
ghostscript (Alpine package) - update to 9.53.1-r0
ghostscript (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.13, 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.13, 9.50~dfsg-5ubuntu4.2
libgs9 (Ubuntu package) - addressed in versions 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.13, 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.13, 9.50~dfsg-5ubuntu4.2
ghostscript (Red Hat package) - update to 9.27-1.el8

• https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=701818
• https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git;a=commitdiff;h=94d8955cb77
• https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/08/msg00032.html

• Multiple vulnerabilities in Ghostscript
• Debian update for ghostscript
• Gentoo update for GPL Ghostscript
• Use-after-free in ghostscript (Alpine package)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 update for ghostscript
• Ubuntu update for ghostscript