CVE-2025-27831

Critical

Published: 25 March 2025

Published

25 March 2025

Modified

03 November 2025

KEV Added

—

Patch

—

CVSS Score 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0017 37.9th percentile

Risk Priority 20 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2025-27831 is a critical-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript. Its CVSS base score is 9.8 (Critical).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 37.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SI-10 (Information Input Validation) and SI-16 (Memory Protection).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190). What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Requires timely identification, reporting, and patching of the buffer overflow flaw in Ghostscript, directly aligning with the advisory to upgrade to version 10.05.0.

SI-16 Memory Protection good match

prevent

Implements memory protections such as non-executable memory and address space randomization to prevent arbitrary code execution from the text buffer overflow.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Enforces validation of information inputs to Ghostscript devices, preventing overflows triggered by excessively long character strings.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access

Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Remote buffer overflow (CWE-120) in Ghostscript with CVSS 9.8 (AV:N/PR:N/UI:N) enables arbitrary code execution on systems processing malicious DOCX/TXT inputs, directly mapping to exploitation of public-facing applications using the library for document handling.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v19.0

NVD Description

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. The DOCXWRITE TXTWRITE device has a text buffer overflow via long characters to devices/vector/doc_common.c.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2025-27831 is a text buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-120) discovered in Artifex Ghostscript versions before 10.05.0. The flaw affects the DOCXWRITE and TXTWRITE devices, specifically in the file devices/vector/doc_common.c, where long characters trigger the overflow.

The vulnerability carries a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.8 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), indicating it is exploitable remotely with low complexity, no privileges, and no user interaction required. Attackers can leverage this to gain high-impact access, potentially achieving arbitrary code execution, data compromise, or system disruption on affected systems processing malicious inputs.

Advisories recommend upgrading to Ghostscript 10.05.0 or later to mitigate the issue. Key references include the Ghostscript bug tracker entry at https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708132 and the Debian LTS announcement at https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/04/msg00014.html.