CVE-2024-29509
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript allows heap-based buffer overflow when processing PDF passwords containing null bytes. Attackers could potentially execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service. Systems using Ghostscript for PDF processing are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Artifex Ghostscript
📦 What is this software?
Ghostscript by Artifex
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution leading to complete system compromise, data theft, or ransomware deployment.
Likely Case
Denial of service causing Ghostscript crashes and disruption of PDF processing services.
If Mitigated
Limited impact if Ghostscript runs in sandboxed environments with minimal privileges.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting PDFs with specific password encoding, but technical details are publicly available.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 10.03.0
Vendor Advisory: https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=707510
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download Ghostscript 10.03.0 or later from official sources. 2. Stop all Ghostscript services. 3. Install the updated version. 4. Restart services. 5. Verify the update.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable PDF password processing
allConfigure Ghostscript to reject PDFs with passwords or disable password processing features
Modify Ghostscript configuration to set -dNOSAFER=false or restrict PDF input sources
Input validation wrapper
allImplement pre-processing to detect and reject PDFs with null bytes in passwords
Create script to scan PDF metadata before passing to Ghostscript
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate Ghostscript services in network segments with strict access controls
- Implement application allowlisting to prevent unauthorized Ghostscript execution
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Run 'gs --version' and check if version is below 10.03.0Check Version:
gs --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm version is 10.03.0 or higher with 'gs --version'📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Ghostscript crash logs
- Unexpected process termination
- Memory access violation errors
Network Indicators:
- Unusual PDF uploads to processing services
- Spike in failed PDF processing requests
SIEM Query:
source="ghostscript.log" AND ("segmentation fault" OR "heap overflow" OR "access violation")🔗 References
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=707510
- https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Bh=917b3a71fb20748965254631199ad98210d6c2fb
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/07/03/7
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=707510
- https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Bh=917b3a71fb20748965254631199ad98210d6c2fb
- https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2024/07/03/7
