CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2016-9601 — Artifex Gpl Ghostscript security vulnerability

Medium CVSS 5.5

ghostscript before version 9.21 is vulnerable to a heap based buffer overflow that was found in the ghostscript jbig2_decode_gray_scale_image function which is used to decode halftone segments in a JBIG2 image. A document (PostScript or PDF) with an embedded, specially crafted, jbig2 image could trigger a segmentation fault in ghostscript.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
5.5 (3.0)
Published
2018-04-24
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-190, CWE-119

Affected products

  • artifex / gpl_ghostscript
  • artifex / jbig2dec
  • debian / debian_linux / 8.0
  • debian / debian_linux / 9.0

Matched remediation archetype

Buffer bounds, memory safety, and memory corruption

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Check exposure

  • Identify affected native-code versions, build flags, architectures, parsers, codecs, drivers, and input paths in all shipped artifacts.
  • Determine whether untrusted data reaches the affected routine and the process privilege, sandbox, and network exposure.
  • Confirm statically linked, vendored, firmware, and platform-provided copies, not only package-manager records.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the maintained upstream correction or replace the affected component, then rebuild every dependent artifact from clean inputs.
  • Adopt bounds-checked interfaces, validated sizes and integer conversions, clear ownership, and memory-safe components where practical.
  • Enable supported compiler and runtime hardening and add sanitized tests and fuzz regression seeds derived from non-weaponized fixtures.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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