CVE-2018-17961

HIGHNVD 8.68.6—Trending — 4 sources updated this weekWeaponized

8.6

Artifex Ghostscript 9.25 and earlier allows attackers to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via vectors involving errorhandler setup. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2018-17183.

CVSS v3: 8.6
EG Score: 8.6(medium)
EPSS: 93.4%
KEV: Not listed

Published

October 15, 2018

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

References (22)

cve@mitrehttp://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a54c9e61e7d0
cve@mitrehttp://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a5a9bf8c6a63
cve@mitrehttp://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a6807394bd94
cve@mitrehttp://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/10/09/4
cve@mitrehttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3834
cve@mitrehttps://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1682&desc=2
cve@mitrehttps://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=699816
cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/10/msg00013.html
cve@mitrehttps://usn.ubuntu.com/3803-1/
cve@mitrehttps://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4336
cve@mitrehttps://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/45573/
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a54c9e61e7d0
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a5a9bf8c6a63
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=a6807394bd94
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/10/09/4

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / Ecosystem	Fixed in / Patch	Released	Source
ubuntu	libgs9-common (9.25~dfsg+1-0ubuntu0.16.04.2) @ xenial	2026-05-28	ubuntu
redhat	ghostscript-0:9.07-31.el7_6.6	2018-12-17	redhat

Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

CWE-209Generation of Error Message Containing Sensitive Information

All Vendor Advisories

(2)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 16× in last 7d / 16× in last 30d)

Every time one of our enrichment pipelines (NVD, MITRE cvelistV5, EPSS, CISA KEV, GHSA, OSV, vendor advisories) ran against this CVE. Most recent first.

2026-05-31 22:29 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-31 22:28 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-31 00:14 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-31 00:14 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-29 13:41 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-28 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-28 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-28 02:07 UTCEG score recompute
2026-05-28 02:07 UTCVendor advisory
2026-05-28 02:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
2026-05-27 13:38 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-27 13:38 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 13:42 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 07:17 UTCepss_batch
2026-05-26 07:17 UTCepss_batch

Publicly available exploits

(2 references)

Working exploit code is in the public domain (1 GitHub PoC) (1 Exploit-DB entry). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.

GitHub PoCmatlink/CVE-2018-17961
First seen Nov 1, 2018
Open source ↗
Exploit-DBEDB-45573✓ verified
First seen Oct 9, 2018
ghostscript - executeonly Bypass with errorhandler Setup
Open source ↗

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2018-17961?

CVE-2018-17961 is a high vulnerability published on October 15, 2018. Artifex Ghostscript 9.25 and earlier allows attackers to bypass a sandbox protection mechanism via vectors involving errorhandler setup. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2018-17183.

When was CVE-2018-17961 disclosed?

CVE-2018-17961 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on October 15, 2018, with the most recent update on November 21, 2024. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.

Is CVE-2018-17961 actively exploited?

CVE-2018-17961 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 93.4% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.

What is the CVSS score of CVE-2018-17961?

CVE-2018-17961 has a CVSS v3 base score of 8.6 (NVD).

How do I remediate CVE-2018-17961?

Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2018-17961, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2018-17961

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CVE-2018-17961

Published

Last Modified

References (22)

Patch Availability(2)

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2018-17961?

Same vendor

Same CWE

CVE-2018-17961

📅 Published

🔄 Last Modified

🔗 References (22)

Patch Availability(2)

Weakness Classification(1)

All Vendor Advisories

Data Freshness Timeline

Publicly available exploits

❓ Frequently asked(5)

Dependency Blast Radius

Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2018-17961?

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References (22)

Frequently asked(5)

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