Vulnerabilities > CVE-2009-4897 - Buffer Errors vulnerability in Artifex products
Attack vector
NETWORK Attack complexity
MEDIUM Privileges required
NONE Confidentiality impact
COMPLETE Integrity impact
COMPLETE Availability impact
COMPLETE Summary
Buffer overflow in gs/psi/iscan.c in Ghostscript 8.64 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted PDF document containing a long name.
Vulnerable Configurations
Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
- Buffer Overflow via Environment Variables This attack pattern involves causing a buffer overflow through manipulation of environment variables. Once the attacker finds that they can modify an environment variable, they may try to overflow associated buffers. This attack leverages implicit trust often placed in environment variables.
- Overflow Buffers Buffer Overflow attacks target improper or missing bounds checking on buffer operations, typically triggered by input injected by an attacker. As a consequence, an attacker is able to write past the boundaries of allocated buffer regions in memory, causing a program crash or potentially redirection of execution as per the attackers' choice.
- Client-side Injection-induced Buffer Overflow This type of attack exploits a buffer overflow vulnerability in targeted client software through injection of malicious content from a custom-built hostile service.
- Filter Failure through Buffer Overflow In this attack, the idea is to cause an active filter to fail by causing an oversized transaction. An attacker may try to feed overly long input strings to the program in an attempt to overwhelm the filter (by causing a buffer overflow) and hoping that the filter does not fail securely (i.e. the user input is let into the system unfiltered).
- MIME Conversion An attacker exploits a weakness in the MIME conversion routine to cause a buffer overflow and gain control over the mail server machine. The MIME system is designed to allow various different information formats to be interpreted and sent via e-mail. Attack points exist when data are converted to MIME compatible format and back.
Nessus
NASL family Ubuntu Local Security Checks NASL id UBUNTU_USN-961-1.NASL description David Srbecky discovered that Ghostscript incorrectly handled debug logging. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted PDF file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code with privileges of the user invoking the program. This issue only affected Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10. The default compiler options for affected releases should reduce the vulnerability to a denial of service. (CVE-2009-4270) It was discovered that Ghostscript incorrectly handled certain malformed files. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted Postscript or PDF file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code with privileges of the user invoking the program. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Ubuntu 9.04. (CVE-2009-4897) Dan Rosenberg discovered that Ghostscript incorrectly handled certain recursive Postscript files. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted Postscript file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code with privileges of the user invoking the program. (CVE-2010-1628) Rodrigo Rubira Branco and Dan Rosenberg discovered that Ghostscript incorrectly handled certain malformed Postscript files. If a user or automated system were tricked into opening a crafted Postscript file, an attacker could cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code with privileges of the user invoking the program. This issue only affected Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, 9.04 and 9.10. (CVE-2010-1869). Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory. Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without introducing additional issues. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 47734 published 2010-07-14 reporter Ubuntu Security Notice (C) 2010-2019 Canonical, Inc. / NASL script (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/47734 title Ubuntu 8.04 LTS / 9.04 / 9.10 / 10.04 LTS : ghostscript vulnerabilities (USN-961-1) NASL family Debian Local Security Checks NASL id DEBIAN_DSA-2093.NASL description Two security issues have been discovered in Ghostscript, the GPL PostScript/PDF interpreter. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project identifies the following problems : - CVE-2009-4897 A buffer overflow was discovered that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service via a crafted PDF document containing a long name. - CVE-2010-1628 Dan Rosenberg discovered that ghostscript incorrectly handled certain recursive Postscript files. An attacker could execute arbitrary code via a PostScript file containing unlimited recursive procedure invocations, which trigger memory corruption in the stack of the interpreter. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 48386 published 2010-08-23 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/48386 title Debian DSA-2093-1 : ghostscript - several vulnerabilities NASL family Gentoo Local Security Checks NASL id GENTOO_GLSA-201412-17.NASL description The remote host is affected by the vulnerability described in GLSA-201412-17 (GPL Ghostscript: Multiple vulnerabilities) Multiple vulnerabilities have been discovered in GPL Ghostscript. Please review the CVE identifiers referenced below for details. Impact : A context-dependent attacker could entice a user to open a specially crafted PostScript file or PDF using GPL Ghostscript, possibly resulting in execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the process or a Denial of Service condition. Workaround : There is no known workaround at this time. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 79970 published 2014-12-15 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2014-2016 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/79970 title GLSA-201412-17 : GPL Ghostscript: Multiple vulnerabilities NASL family Mandriva Local Security Checks NASL id MANDRIVA_MDVSA-2010-136.NASL description Multiple vulnerabilities has been found and corrected in ghostscript : Buffer overflow in gs/psi/iscan.c in Ghostscript 8.64 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted PDF document containing a long name (CVE-2009-4897). Ghostscript 8.64, 8.70, and possibly other versions allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PostScript file containing unlimited recursive procedure invocations, which trigger memory corruption in the stack of the interpreter (CVE-2010-1628). As a precaution ghostscriptc has been rebuilt to link against the system libpng library which was fixed with MDVSA-2010:133 The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 48194 published 2010-07-30 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/48194 title Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : ghostscript (MDVSA-2010:136) NASL family SuSE Local Security Checks NASL id SUSE_11_1_GHOSTSCRIPT-DEVEL-100712.NASL description Specially crafted postscript (.ps) files could cause buffer overflows in ghostscript that could potentially be exploited to execute arbitrary code (CVE-2010-1628, CVE-2010-1869, CVE-2009-4270) ghostscript by default read some initialization files from the current working directory. Local attackers could potentially exploit that to have other users execute arbitrary commands by placing such files e.g. in /tmp (CVE-2010-2055). last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 48233 published 2010-08-03 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/48233 title openSUSE Security Update : ghostscript-devel (openSUSE-SU-2010:0425-2) NASL family Mandriva Local Security Checks NASL id MANDRIVA_MDVSA-2010-134.NASL description Multiple vulnerabilities has been found and corrected in ghostscript : Stack-based buffer overflow in the errprintf function in base/gsmisc.c in ghostscript 8.64 through 8.70 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted PDF file, as originally reported for debug logging code in gdevcups.c in the CUPS output driver (CVE-2009-4270). Buffer overflow in gs/psi/iscan.c in Ghostscript 8.64 and earlier allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted PDF document containing a long name (CVE-2009-4897). Ghostscript 8.64, 8.70, and possibly other versions allows context-dependent attackers to execute arbitrary code via a PostScript file containing unlimited recursive procedure invocations, which trigger memory corruption in the stack of the interpreter (CVE-2010-1628). As a precaution ghostscript has been rebuilt to link against the system libpng library which was fixed with MDVSA-2010:133 Packages for 2008.0 and 2009.0 are provided as of the Extended Maintenance Program. Please visit this link to learn more: http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?cPath=149&products_id=4 90 The updated packages have been patched to correct these issues. last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 48193 published 2010-07-30 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/48193 title Mandriva Linux Security Advisory : ghostscript (MDVSA-2010:134) NASL family SuSE Local Security Checks NASL id SUSE_11_0_GHOSTSCRIPT-DEVEL-100712.NASL description Specially crafted postscript (.ps) files could cause buffer overflows in ghostscript that could potentially be exploited to execute arbitrary code (CVE-2010-1628, CVE-2010-1869, CVE-2009-4270) ghostscript by default read some initialization files from the current working directory. Local attackers could potentially exploit that to have other users execute arbitrary commands by placing such files e.g. in /tmp (CVE-2010-2055). last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 47815 published 2010-07-23 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/47815 title openSUSE Security Update : ghostscript-devel (openSUSE-SU-2010:0425-1) NASL family SuSE Local Security Checks NASL id SUSE_11_GHOSTSCRIPT-DEVEL-100712.NASL description This update for ghostscript fixes the following security issues : - Specially crafted postscript (.ps) files can cause buffer overflows in ghostscript that could potentially be exploited to execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2010-1869 / CVE-2010-1628 / CVE-2009-4270) - By default, ghostscript reads certain initialization files from the current working directory. Local attackers could potentially exploit this to have other users execute arbitrary commands by placing such files, e.g. in /tmp. (CVE-2010-2055) last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 50909 published 2010-12-02 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/50909 title SuSE 11 / 11.1 Security Update : ghostscript (SAT Patch Numbers 2708 / 2709) NASL family SuSE Local Security Checks NASL id SUSE_11_2_GHOSTSCRIPT-DEVEL-100712.NASL description Specially crafted postscript (.ps) files could cause buffer overflows in ghostscript that could potentially be exploited to execute arbitrary code (CVE-2010-1628, CVE-2010-1869, CVE-2009-4270) ghostscript by default read some initialization files from the current working directory. Local attackers could potentially exploit that to have other users execute arbitrary commands by placing such files e.g. in /tmp (CVE-2010-2055). last seen 2020-06-01 modified 2020-06-02 plugin id 48236 published 2010-08-03 reporter This script is Copyright (C) 2010-2019 and is owned by Tenable, Inc. or an Affiliate thereof. source https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/48236 title openSUSE Security Update : ghostscript-devel (openSUSE-SU-2010:0425-2)
References
- http://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=690523
- http://secunia.com/advisories/40580
- http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-201412-17.xml
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2010:134
- http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2010:135
- http://www.osvdb.org/66277
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/41593
- http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-961-1
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=613792
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/60380