What is CVE-2020-21890?

CVE-2020-21890 is a high-severity vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-08-22.

How severe is CVE-2020-21890?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Artifex Ghostscript

CVE-2020-21890

Buffer Overflow vulnerability in clj_media_size function in devices/gdevclj.c in Artifex Ghostscript 9.50 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service or other unspecified impact(s) via opening of crafted PDF document.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2023-08-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.008 (55.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-30.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 55th percentile — 55.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.008 · newest: 0.008 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Artifex Ghostscript — versions 9.50

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-787 — Out-of-bounds Write

References

bugs.ghostscript.com/show_bug.cgi (Exploit, Patch, Issue Tracking, Vendor Advisory)
lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/09/msg00029.html (mailing-list)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-21890?: CVE-2020-21890 is a high-severity vulnerability in Artifex Ghostscript, classified under Out-of-bounds Write. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2023-08-22.
How severe is CVE-2020-21890?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.