CVE-2016-8602
The .sethalftone5 function in psi/zht2.c in Ghostscript before 9.21 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted Postscript document that calls .sethalftone5 with an empty…
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (3.21%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
The .sethalftone5 function in psi/zht2.c in Ghostscript before 9.21 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly execute arbitrary code via a crafted Postscript document that calls .sethalftone5 with an empty operand stack.
- CVSS 3.0
- 7.8 HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 3.21% probability · 88th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-704
- Affected
- artifex/ghostscript
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS moved from 5.9% on 21 September 2026 to 3.2% on 27 October 2026. The dashed line is the ten per cent mark our analysts treat as “patch before the next change window”.
References
- http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=f5c7555c303
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0013.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0014.html
- http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3691
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/11/5Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/11/7Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95311Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697203Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1383940Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://ghostscript.com/doc/9.21/History9.htmPatch, Vendor Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-31
- http://git.ghostscript.com/?p=ghostpdl.git%3Ba=commitdiff%3Bh=f5c7555c303
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0013.html
- http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2017-0014.html
- http://www.debian.org/security/2016/dsa-3691
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/11/5Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2016/10/11/7Mailing List, Patch, Third Party Advisory
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/95311Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697203Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1383940Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://ghostscript.com/doc/9.21/History9.htmPatch, Vendor Advisory
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/201702-31
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.