RHEL 6 : ghostscript (RHSA-2012:0095)

high Nessus Plugin ID 57822

Language:

Synopsis

The remote Red Hat host is missing one or more security updates for ghostscript.

Description

The remote Redhat Enterprise Linux 6 host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the RHSA-2012:0095 advisory.

Ghostscript is a set of software that provides a PostScript interpreter, a set of C procedures (the Ghostscript library, which implements the graphics capabilities in the PostScript language) and an interpreter for Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

An integer overflow flaw was found in Ghostscript's TrueType bytecode interpreter. An attacker could create a specially-crafted PostScript or PDF file that, when interpreted, could cause Ghostscript to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code. (CVE-2009-3743)

It was found that Ghostscript always tried to read Ghostscript system initialization files from the current working directory before checking other directories, even if a search path that did not contain the current working directory was specified with the -I option, or the -P- option was used (to prevent the current working directory being searched first).
If a user ran Ghostscript in an attacker-controlled directory containing a system initialization file, it could cause Ghostscript to execute arbitrary PostScript code. (CVE-2010-2055)

Ghostscript included the current working directory in its library search path by default. If a user ran Ghostscript without the -P- option in an attacker-controlled directory containing a specially-crafted PostScript library file, it could cause Ghostscript to execute arbitrary PostScript code. With this update, Ghostscript no longer searches the current working directory for library files by default. (CVE-2010-4820)

Note: The fix for CVE-2010-4820 could possibly break existing configurations. To use the previous, vulnerable behavior, run Ghostscript with the -P option (to always search the current working directory first).

A flaw was found in the way Ghostscript interpreted PostScript Type 1 and PostScript Type 2 font files. An attacker could create a specially-crafted PostScript Type 1 or PostScript Type 2 font file that, when interpreted, could cause Ghostscript to crash or, potentially, execute arbitrary code.
(CVE-2010-4054)

Users of Ghostscript are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which contain backported patches to correct these issues.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the RHEL ghostscript package based on the guidance in RHSA-2012:0095.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 57822

File Name: redhat-RHSA-2012-0095.nasl

Version: 1.21

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Red Hat Local Security Checks

Published: 2/3/2012

Updated: 4/14/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.7

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Moderate

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 9.3

Temporal Score: 7.3

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2009-3743

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.8

Temporal Score: 7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2010-4054

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ghostscript-gtk, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ghostscript, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ghostscript-doc, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:ghostscript-devel

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/RedHat/release, Host/RedHat/rpm-list, Host/cpu

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 2/2/2012

Vulnerability Publication Date: 7/22/2010

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2009-3743, CVE-2010-2055, CVE-2010-4054, CVE-2010-4820

BID: 40467, 42640, 43932

CWE: 190, 20

RHSA: 2012:0095

Detections

Analytics