No exploitation reportedFix available

CVE-2018-16585

Q: Is CVE-2018-16585 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-16585 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.7% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Q: What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-16585?

CVE-2018-16585 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

No exploitation reported by the sources we read.

Published2018-09-06
WeaknessCWE-119

Am I affected?

With a domain, we read the version its public headers and pages expose. A distribution build can carry the fix under an older number.

Description

An issue was discovered in Artifex Ghostscript before 9.24. The .setdistillerkeys PostScript command is accepted even though it is not intended for use during document processing (e.g., after the startup phase). This leads to memory corruption, allowing remote attackers able to supply crafted PostScript to crash the interpreter or possibly have unspecified other impact. Note: A reputable source believes that the CVE is potentially a duplicate of CVE-2018-15910 as explained in Red Hat bugzilla (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1626193)

Timeline

dates in UTC

2018-09-0614:29CVE publishedNVD

Observed activity

isMalicious corpus · updated 2026-10-23 21:37 UTC

Indicators tagged with this CVE, per day0 indicators over 7 days

Block these indicators

Firewall list (EDL, text): https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-16585?format=txt
CSV export: https://api.ismalicious.com/edl/cve/CVE-2018-16585?format=csv
TAXII collection of exploited CVEs
The EDL and CSV take an API key on the Pro plan.

Versions per branch

NVD

Canonical ubuntu linux

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
14.4	= 14.04	no fix published	NVD
16.4	= 16.04	no fix published	NVD
18.4	= 18.04	no fix published	NVD

Debian debian linux

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
8.0	= 8.0	no fix published	NVD
9.0	= 9.0	no fix published	NVD

Artifex ghostscript

Branch	Affected	Fixed in	Source
9.24	< 9.24	9.24	NVD

as publishedRanges as NVD and OSV publish them; a distribution’s build can be fixed under an older number.

Fix

Advisories and patches

seclists.orgPatch

Detection

Nuclei template: none so far
Exploit-DB: no entry
Proof-of-concept repositories: none listed

Sources

CISA-ADPSSVC decisionnone2024-04-24
OpenCVESSVC decisionnone—
NVDCVSS 3.07.8read 2026-10-23
NVDCVSS 2.06.8read 2026-10-23
NVDweakness (CWE)CWE-119read 2026-10-23
FIRST EPSSEPSS score1.7 %2026-10-23

Technical details

CVSS v3 Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Published: 2018-09-06
Last Modified: 2026-06-17
NVD status: Modified

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2018-16585?

Is CVE-2018-16585 actively exploited?

Active exploitation of CVE-2018-16585 has not been confirmed. Its EPSS score was 1.7% on 2026-10-23, the estimated probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

What is the CVSS score for CVE-2018-16585?

CVE-2018-16585 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (HIGH severity), with vector string CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

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