CVE-2025-27833
Published: 25 March 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-27833 is a high-severity Classic Buffer Overflow (CWE-120) vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203); ranked at the 19.2th 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-16 (Memory Protection) and SI-2 (Flaw Remediation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-27833 is a buffer overflow vulnerability (CWE-120) discovered in Artifex Ghostscript versions before 10.05.0. The flaw occurs in the pdf/pdf_fmap.c component when processing a long TTF font name, potentially leading to memory corruption. This affects systems or applications that use vulnerable Ghostscript installations for PDF or PostScript processing.
Exploitation requires local access (AV:L) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no privileges (PR:N), but relies on user interaction (UI:R), such as opening a malicious PDF file with Ghostscript. A successful attack can achieve high impacts on confidentiality, integrity, and availability (C:H/I:H/A:H), earning a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.8. Local attackers could leverage this to execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service on the affected system.
The primary advisory reference is the Ghostscript bug tracker at https://bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi?id=708259. Mitigation involves upgrading to Ghostscript 10.05.0 or later, where the issue is addressed.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-8094
Vulnerability details
An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 10.05.0. A buffer overflow occurs for a long TTF font name to pdf/pdf_fmap.c.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Buffer overflow in Ghostscript PDF/PostScript processing enables arbitrary code execution via malicious file, directly mapping to Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly remediates the buffer overflow vulnerability in Ghostscript's pdf_fmap.c by requiring timely patching or upgrade to version 10.05.0 or later.
Protects against memory corruption from the buffer overflow by implementing controls like DEP, ASLR, and stack canaries to block unauthorized code execution.
Validates PDF inputs including TTF font name lengths to block malformed data that triggers the buffer overflow in Ghostscript.