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CVE-2023-4042: Ghostscript: incomplete fix for cve-2020-16305

• Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2023-08-23 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-125

Description

A flaw was found in ghostscript. The fix for CVE-2020-16305 in ghostscript was not included in RHSA-2021:1852-06 advisory as it was claimed to be. This issue only affects the ghostscript package as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

Affected products

• Artifex Ghostscript: before 9.51 — fixed in 9.51
• RedHat Codeready Linux Builder: 8.0
• RedHat Codeready Linux Builder For Arm64: 8.0_aarch64
• RedHat Codeready Linux Builder For Ibm Z Systems: 8.0_s390x
• RedHat Codeready Linux Builder For Power Little Endian: 8.0_ppc64le
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 8.0
• RedHat Enterprise Linux For Arm 64: 8.0_aarch64
• RedHat Enterprise Linux For Ibm Z Systems: 8.0_s390x
• RedHat Enterprise Linux For Power Little Endian: 8.0_ppc64le

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Artifex Ghostscript 9.51. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:7053
• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4042
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1870257
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2228151
• https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2023:7053
• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-4042
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1870257
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2228151

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