CVE-2016-7978

critical
Published 2017-05-23 · Modified 2026-05-13
CVSS v3
9.8
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v2
7.5
VIR risk
9.8

Description

Use-after-free vulnerability in Ghostscript 9.20 might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via vectors related to a reference leak in .setdevice.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
97%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-7978

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: suse — https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-7978.html

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: cve@mitre.org — https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697179

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: cve@mitre.org — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/05/15

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
suse slesaffected
debian debianbookwormfixed9.19~dfsg-3.1
debian debianbullseyefixed9.19~dfsg-3.1
debian debianforkyfixed9.19~dfsg-3.1
debian debiansidfixed9.19~dfsg-3.1
debian debiantrixiefixed9.19~dfsg-3.1

Application impact

VendorProductVersionsFixed
artifexghostscript9.20

References

CWEs

CWE-416

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.