CVE-2019-3839: artifex ghostscript Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs
Vulnerability summary
CVE-2019-3839 is a high (CVSS 7.8) Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs vulnerability in artifex ghostscript. EPSS estimates a 1.71% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 77.3% of scored vulnerabilities.
Severe, CVSS 7.3 (CVE.org); no exploitation reported by the 5 checked sources; EPSS 2% (FIRST, 03-11-2026)
Source freshness unavailable
How is this decided?Advisory lineage
Upstream 0 · Downstream 5 · Related 4Timeline
- 16-05-2019PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
- 04-08-2024Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.
Description
It was found that in ghostscript some privileged operators remained accessible from various places after the CVE-2019-6116 fix. A specially crafted PostScript file could use this flaw in order to, for example, have access to the file system outside of the constrains imposed by -dSAFER. Ghostscript versions before 9.27 are vulnerable.
CVSS metrics
8 scores · 5 sources · 3 versions- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated7.8HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- OSV · DebianEcosystem advisory · calculated7.8HighCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- OSV · Red hatEcosystem advisory · calculated7.3HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- OSV · UbuntuEcosystem advisory · calculated7.8HighCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HDiffers
- NVDNIST7.3HighCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
EPSS trend
Probability
1.71%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days
Percentile
77%
Versus all other CVEs
30-day change
Decrease -0.05 pp
From 1.76% on 04-10-2026
Known exploited
Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVNot in the CISA KEV catalog.
ENISA CNWNot in the ENISA CNW catalog.
CIRCLNot in the CIRCL catalog.
Public exploits
0 foundNo public exploits indexed.
Weaknesses
CWE · root causeAffected systems
Known conditions: network-reachable, no authentication, no user interaction (CVSS vector). Other conditions: not stated in public data.
Redhat7 products
- enterprise_linuxEOL5.0 | 6.0
- ghostscript< 0:9.07-31.el7_6.11
- ghostscript-cups< 0:9.07-31.el7_6.11
- ghostscript-debuginfo< 0:9.07-31.el7_6.11
- ghostscript-devel< 0:9.07-31.el7_6.11
Debian2 products
- ghostscript< 9.27~dfsg-1 | < 9.26a~dfsg-0+deb9u3 | < 9.26a~dfsg-0+deb8u3
- debian_linuxEOL8.0 | 9.0
Artifex1 product
- ghostscript< 9.27
Canonical1 product
- ubuntu_linuxEOL16.04 | 18.04 | 18.10 | 19.04
Fedoraproject1 product
- fedoraEOL29 | 30
Mageia1 product
- ghostscript< 9.26-1.4.mga6
Opensuse1 product
- leapEOL15.0 | 15.1
The ghostscript project1 product
- ghostscript9.28
Ubuntu1 product
- ghostscript< 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.16.04.9 | < 9.26~dfsg+0-0ubuntu0.18.04.9
9 vendors · 16 products
References
23 links- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-3839X Refsource CONFIRMIssue TrackingPatchThird Party Advisory
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2019:1017Vendor AdvisoryX Refsource REDHATWEBAdvisoryThird Party Advisory
- lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/05/msg00023.htmlMailing ListX Refsource MLISTThird Party Advisory
Show all 23 references
- lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00090.htmlVendor AdvisoryX Refsource SUSEMailing ListThird Party Advisory
- lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00088.htmlVendor AdvisoryX Refsource SUSEMailing ListThird Party Advisory
