HOMEVULNERABILITIESCVE-2020-15900
CRITICAL

CVE-2020-15900

CWE-191Published: July 28, 2020· Updated: Jun 17, 2026

9.8
CVSS v3.1

Official Description

A memory corruption issue was found in Artifex Ghostscript 9.50 and 9.52. Use of a non-standard PostScript operator can allow overriding of file access controls. The 'rsearch' calculation for the 'post' size resulted in a size that was too large, and could underflow to max uint32_t. This was fixed in commit 5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31b.

NVD Source

Technical Analysis

CVE-2020-15900 can be exploited remotely over the network without requiring physical or adjacent access, significantly expanding the attack surface for threat actors.

The vulnerability requires no privileges and no user interaction, making it a prime target for automated exploitation campaigns and worm-like propagation.

A successful exploit results in complete confidentiality breach (data exposure), full integrity compromise (data manipulation), availability disruption (denial of service), with a CVSS base score of 9.8.

CVSS v3.1 Vector Breakdown

Exploitability
Attack VectorNetwork
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges Req.None
User InteractionNone
ScopeUnchanged
Impact
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityHigh
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected Vendors & Products

artifex1 product(s)
ghostscript
Canonical1 product(s)
ubuntu linux
openSUSE1 product(s)
leap
Source: NVD CPE · 5 total CPE entries

Exploit & PoC Resources

NO KNOWN EXPLOITNo public exploit confirmed at this time
Exploit-DB
Offensive Security exploit database
GitHub PoC Search
Community PoC repositories
Rapid7 / Metasploit
Metasploit module search
PacketStorm
Security advisories & exploits
NVD Detail
Official NIST entry
MITRE CVE
CVE Program entry
External links open in a new tab. Always verify in a controlled environment before use.

Official Patches & Advisories

PATCHhttps://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commit/5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31b
PATCHhttps://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commits/master/psi/zstring.c
PATCHhttps://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commit/5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31b
PATCHhttps://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commits/master/psi/zstring.c
ADVISORYhttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00004.html
ADVISORYhttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00006.html
ADVISORYhttps://artifex.com/security-advisories/CVE-2020-15900
ADVISORYhttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-20
ADVISORYhttps://usn.ubuntu.com/4445-1/
ADVISORYhttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00004.html
ADVISORYhttp://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00006.html
ADVISORYhttps://artifex.com/security-advisories/CVE-2020-15900
ADVISORYhttps://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-20
ADVISORYhttps://usn.ubuntu.com/4445-1/

All References (18)

→
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=log
→
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00004.htmlMailing List · Third Party Advisory
→
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00006.htmlMailing List · Third Party Advisory
→
https://artifex.com/security-advisories/CVE-2020-15900Vendor Advisory
→
https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31b
→
https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commit/5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31bPatch · Third Party Advisory
→
https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commits/master/psi/zstring.cPatch · Third Party Advisory
→
https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-20Third Party Advisory
→
https://usn.ubuntu.com/4445-1/Third Party Advisory
→
http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=log
→
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00004.htmlMailing List · Third Party Advisory
→
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-08/msg00006.htmlMailing List · Third Party Advisory
→
https://artifex.com/security-advisories/CVE-2020-15900Vendor Advisory
→
https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31b
→
https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl/commit/5d499272b95a6b890a1397e11d20937de000d31bPatch · Third Party Advisory

Quick Facts

CVE IDCVE-2020-15900
CVSS Score9.8 / 10
SeverityCRITICAL
WeaknessCWE-191
CISA KEVNo
Affected3 vendor(s)
PublishedJul 28, 2020

Related CVEs (CWE-191)

CVE-2007-0063
10.0
CVE-2018-14353
9.8
CVE-2018-20179
9.8
CVE-2018-14817
9.8
CVE-2018-20180
9.8
CVE-2018-20181
9.8

Recommended Actions

  • →Apply vendor patches immediately
  • →Monitor CVE-2020-15900 in threat intel feeds
  • →Review IDS/IPS signatures for exploitation attempts
Data sourced from NVD (NIST), CISA KEV, and EPSS (FIRST). Analysis generated by CTIWATCH.COM. CVE data is provided under the NVD usage policy.
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