CVE-2025-27834
📋 TL;DR
A buffer overflow vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by crafting a malicious PDF document with an oversized Type 4 function. This affects systems processing PDF files with vulnerable Ghostscript versions, potentially compromising servers, workstations, or applications using Ghostscript for PDF rendering.
💻 Affected Systems
- Artifex Ghostscript
📦 What is this software?
Ghostscript by Artifex
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Remote code execution leading to full system compromise, data theft, or ransomware deployment.
Likely Case
Application crash (denial of service) or limited code execution in sandboxed environments.
If Mitigated
Denial of service only if exploit fails or is blocked by security controls.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires crafting a malicious PDF document; no public exploit code is known at this time.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 10.05.0 and later
Vendor Advisory: https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708253
Restart Required: No
Instructions:
1. Download Ghostscript 10.05.0 or later from the official website. 2. Stop any services using Ghostscript. 3. Install the updated version. 4. Restart services.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Disable PDF processing
allTemporarily disable Ghostscript-based PDF processing in applications until patched.
Use PDF sanitization
allImplement PDF sanitization tools (e.g., qpdf, mutool) to strip malicious content before processing.
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Isolate Ghostscript services in network segments with strict access controls.
- Implement application allowlisting to block unexpected process execution from Ghostscript.
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Run 'gs --version' and check if version is below 10.05.0.Check Version:
gs --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm 'gs --version' returns 10.05.0 or higher.📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Ghostscript crash logs, unexpected process spawns from gs, or PDF processing errors.
Network Indicators:
- Unusual PDF uploads to web services, spikes in PDF processing requests.
SIEM Query:
source="ghostscript.log" AND (event="segmentation fault" OR event="buffer overflow")