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Ghostscript CVE-2025-27837

CRITICAL
Path Traversal (CWE-22)
2025-03-25 cve@mitre.org
Path Traversal Red Hat Suse Ghostscript Artifex
Critical
Disputed · 9.8 NVD
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Vulnerability Assessment

Weakness
CWE
CWE-22
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling Path canonicalization, traversal prevention
MITRE ATT&CK

2 techniques across 2 tactics: Discovery, Collection

The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up.

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Impact

CVSS score of 9.8 (CRITICAL). Attack characteristics: network attack vector, low complexity, no privileges required, no user interaction not required. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.40%.
Exploit ScenarioDerived

A remote attacker could access files and directories outside the intended path by sending crafted requests to the affected application. No authentication is required to exploit this vulnerability.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
Patch available 0.4% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Mar 28, 2026

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. Rated critical severity (CVSS 9.8), this vulnerability is remotely exploitable, no authentication required, low attack complexity. This Path Traversal vulnerability could allow attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Validate and canonicalize file paths. Use chroot or sandboxing. Reject input containing path separators or '../' sequences.

Affects your stack

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Technical ContextAI · show details

This vulnerability is classified as Path Traversal (CWE-22), which allows attackers to access files and directories outside the intended path. An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. Access to arbitrary files can occur through a truncated path with invalid UTF-8 characters, for base/gp_mswin.c and base/winrtsup.cpp. Affected products include: Artifex Ghostscript. Version information: before 10.05.0..

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  • Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source

Sources disagree (Medium–Critical)
NVD PRIMARY 9.8 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SUSE CRITICAL
Red Hat 5.3 MEDIUM

vuln.today treats the vendor’s rating as authoritative. A higher third-party CVSS (e.g. CISA-ADP) is shown for transparency but does not drive the headline severity.

CVSS VectorNVD

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Patch released
Mar 28, 2026 - 18:33 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Mar 25, 2025 - 21:15 nvd
CRITICAL 9.8

DescriptionCVE.org

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. Access to arbitrary files can occur through a truncated path with invalid UTF-8 characters, for base/gp_mswin.c and base/winrtsup.cpp.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Organizations using Artifex Ghostscript face critical risk from CVE-2025-27837, a path traversal vulnerability rated CVSS 9.8. This could allow attackers to access or modify files outside intended directories, potentially exposing sensitive configuration or credentials. A patch is available and should be applied immediately given the critical severity.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

Apply vendor patch. If immediate patching is not feasible: (1) Restrict file upload functionality via WAF; (2) Implement allowlist-based file type validation; (3) Use chroot/containerization to limit filesystem access.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.4%
Top 40% exploitable
Data Quality
3 sources
Confidence: Low
NVD CVE.org EPSS Vendor

How this decision was reached

The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.4%
Patch available Yes
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision· derived
Out-of-Cycle
Exploitation· derived
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable· derived
Yes
Human Impact
Very High

Priority Score

49
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +49
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

Attack Technique

Path Traversal HIGH

Path traversal exploits occur when applications use user-controlled input to construct file system paths without proper validation.

Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org

cpe:2.3:a:artifex:ghostscript:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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The PS Interpreter in Ghostscript 9.18 and 9.20 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted userparams
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The fill_threshhold_buffer function in base/gxht_thresh.c in Artifex Software, Inc. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this
CVE-2017-9611 HIGH POC
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The Ins_MIRP function in base/ttinterp.c in Artifex Ghostscript GhostXPS 9.21 allows remote attackers to cause a denial

CVE-2017-9835 HIGH POC
7.8 Jul 26

The gs_alloc_ref_array function in psi/ialloc.c in Artifex Ghostscript 9.21 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of
CVE-2017-7948 HIGH POC
7.8 Apr 19

Integer overflow in the mark_curve function in Artifex Ghostscript 9.21 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of ser
CVE-2026-101258 HIGH POC
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Ghostscript can execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of its process when it renders a crafted PostScript

Same weakness CWE-22 – Path Traversal

View all
CVE-2019-3396 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2019-19781 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2020-5902 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2021-21972 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2021-40444 HIGH POC
8.8
CVE-2022-41352 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2021-27065 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2019-11510 CRITICAL POC
10.0

Same technique Path Traversal

View all
CVE-2018-20250 HIGH POC
7.8
CVE-2022-37042 CRITICAL POC
9.8
CVE-2025-64446 CRITICAL POC
9.8

Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Critical
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 Fixed
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Fixed
SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 Fixed

References

Advisories & patches
PATCH https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708238 ADVISORY https://www.suse.com/support/update/SUSE-SU-2025:14953/

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