CVE-2018-17961

HIGHNVD 8.68.6—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 8.6 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2022-05-13. NVD baseline CVSS 8.6; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, nvd
Weaponized
8.6EG
EchelonGraph verdictPatch this weekExploitation is likely or a public exploit exists.
  • Public exploit code is available (Exploit-DB (verified), epss top5pct, public exploit)
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 10%CVSS: 8.6Exploit: Exploit-DB (verified) · epss top5pct · public exploitExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

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)
EG Risk
69(Track)
EG Risk 69/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity86% × 45%
Exploitation65% × 40%
Automatability30% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
10%
EPSS %ILE
95%
KEV
Not listed

Published

October 15, 2018

Last Modified

November 21, 2024

Advisory Details (6)

Auto-updated Sep 1, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
generic

[SECURITY] [DSA 4336-1] ghostscript security update

https://www.debian.org/security/2018/dsa-4336
generic Patch Available

[SECURITY] [DLA 1552-1] ghostscript security update

https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2018/10/msg00013.html
generic

699816 – executeonly bypass with errorhandler setup

https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=699816
generic
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1682&desc=2
redhat Patch Available

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:3834
generic

oss-security - ghostscript: bypassing executeonly to escape -dSAFER sandbox (CVE-2018-17961)

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2018/10/09/4

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
ubuntulibgs9-common (9.25~dfsg+1-0ubuntu0.16.04.2) @ xenial2026-05-28ubuntu
redhatghostscript-0:9.07-31.el7_6.62018-12-17redhat

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.

Affected Packages

(25 across 25 ecosystems)
Alpine:v3.10(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.15(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.16(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.17(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.18(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.19(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.20(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.21(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.22(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.23(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.5(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (37 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.6(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (38 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.7(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Alpine:v3.9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript8.64-r0 ... 9.25-r0 (39 versions)9.25-r1—
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript—9.25~dfsg-3—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript—9.25~dfsg-3—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript—9.25~dfsg-3—
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript—9.25~dfsg-3—
Debian:8(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript9.06~dfsg-2 ... 9.06~dfsg-2+deb8u9 (11 versions)9.06~dfsg-2+deb8u11—
Debian:9(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
ghostscript9.20~dfsg-3.2 ... 9.24~~rc2~dfsg-1 (15 versions)9.25~dfsg-0+deb9u1—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

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 5× in last 7d / 23× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 137 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-18 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-09-17 19:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-09-16 05:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-09-15 03:05 UTCEPSS rescore
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  7. 2026-09-11 09:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-09-08 23:02 UTCOSV refresh
  9. 2026-09-07 15:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-09-06 13:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-09-05 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
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  16. 2026-09-01 03:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-28 21:36 UTCEPSS rescore
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  20. 2026-08-25 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-22 08:37 UTCOSV refresh
  22. 2026-08-21 23:45 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-08-20 22:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-08-19 17:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-08-18 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-08-16 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
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  3. 2026-08-15 01:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-08-13 21:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-08-12 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-08-08 16:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-08-07 16:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-06 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-06 11:15 UTCOSV refresh
  10. 2026-08-05 19:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-08-04 15:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-08-02 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-01 04:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-30 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
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  16. 2026-07-28 15:32 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-26 14:51 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-25 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-23 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-23 01:34 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-07-22 22:14 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-07-22 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-07-21 15:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-07-21 04:33 UTCOSV refresh
  28. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-07-20 17:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-07-19 14:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-07-19 02:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-07-16 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
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  35. 2026-07-15 16:55 UTCEPSS rescore
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  37. 2026-07-15 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
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  39. 2026-07-13 22:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-07-13 22:26 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-07-12 05:43 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-07-11 08:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-07-09 19:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-07-08 15:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-07-07 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-07-06 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-07-05 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-07-04 06:28 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-07-03 23:56 UTCOSV refresh
  53. 2026-07-02 16:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  54. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-07-01 15:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  56. 2026-06-30 23:20 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  58. 2026-06-28 04:53 UTCEPSS rescore
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  60. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  61. 2026-06-27 03:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  62. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-06-25 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  64. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  65. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
  66. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  68. 2026-06-23 21:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  69. 2026-06-22 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  70. 2026-06-19 19:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  72. 2026-06-18 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  73. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  74. 2026-06-17 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-06-16 17:50 UTCEPSS rescore

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 10% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 4.6% of all scored CVEs.
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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