CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2018-16863 — It was found that RHSA-2018:2918 did not fully fix CVE-2018-16509

High CVSS 9.3

It was found that RHSA-2018:2918 did not fully fix CVE-2018-16509. An attacker could possibly exploit another variant of the flaw and bypass the -dSAFER protection to, for example, execute arbitrary shell commands via a specially crafted PostScript document. This only affects ghostscript 9.07 as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Severity
High
CVSS
9.3 (2.0)
Published
2018-12-03
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-184, CWE-78

Affected products

  • artifex / ghostscript / 9.07
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_desktop / 7.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_server / 7.0
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_server_aus / 7.6
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_server_eus / 7.6
  • redhat / enterprise_linux_server_tus / 7.6

Showing 6 representative product identities from 7 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Command, code, expression, and template injection

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Trace untrusted values to process execution, interpreters, evaluators, template engines, dynamic imports, and administrative scripting features.
  • Determine whether the affected path is reachable across each trust boundary and which service account or host privilege it inherits.
  • Review configuration for optional execution features, unsafe compatibility modes, and shell invocation.

Remediate safely

  • Replace string-built commands or evaluated code with fixed operations and structured argument APIs that do not invoke a shell.
  • Use strict allowlists for operation identifiers and reject unexpected input before it reaches any interpreter.
  • Update the affected component and add inert regression tests covering metacharacters, encoding variants, and alternate request paths.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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