Out-of-Bounds Read in Artifex Ghostscript (CVE-2023-38559)
Summary
Vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript (CVE-2023-38559). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
A buffer overflow flaw was found in base/gdevdevn.c:1973 in devn_pcx_write_rle() in ghostscript. This issue may allow a local attacker to cause a denial of service via outputting a crafted PDF file for a DEVN device with gs.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-38559 has been found in Artifex Ghostscript.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 5.5/10.
What to do: apply the vendor's official patched release.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "Artifex Ghostscript CVE-2023-38559" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2023-38559 (Artifex Ghostscript) — CWE-125 / CVSS v3 5.5
Attack vector: local / unauthenticated
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
Out-of-bounds read (CWE-125) exists in Artifex Ghostscript.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of Artifex Ghostscript.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.5/10). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to the patched release per vendor advisory.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'Ghostscript' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'Ghostscript' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
Ghostscriptを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Fix status by distribution
Fixed packages published by each distribution for this CVE
- Debian DEBIAN-CVE-2023-38559 ghostscript Fixed in: 9.53.3~dfsg-7+deb11u6
References
- advisory access.redhat.com
- advisory access.redhat.com
- advisory access.redhat.com
- advisory bugzilla.redhat.com
- patch git.ghostscript.com
- web bugs.ghostscript.com
- web lists.debian.org
- web lists.fedoraproject.org
- web lists.fedoraproject.org