Vulnerability in Ghostscript Affects UTF-8 Handling

CVE-2025-46646

What is CVE-2025-46646?

CVE-2025-46646 is a vulnerability found in Artifex Ghostscript, a widely-used suite for processing and rendering PostScript and PDF files. This vulnerability involves improper handling of overlong UTF-8 encoding within the decode_utf8 function of the gp_utf8.c file, which can lead to unexpected behavior. If exploited, this flaw could have serious repercussions for organizations relying on Ghostscript, as it may compromise the integrity of PDF and PostScript document processing and potentially reveal sensitive information.

Technical Details

The flaw exists in versions of Ghostscript prior to 10.05.0, where the handling of UTF-8 encoding was found to be inadequate due to an incomplete fix for a previous vulnerability (CVE-2024-46954). This oversight allows attackers to craft specially encoded input that could cause the Ghostscript interpreter to behave erratically, potentially leading to application crashes or arbitrary code execution.

Potential Impact of CVE-2025-46646

1. Data Exposure: Exploiting this vulnerability could allow unauthorized access to sensitive data processed through Ghostscript, raising significant privacy and compliance concerns.

2. Service Disruption: Organizations may experience application crashes or degradation in processing capabilities, affecting workflows that depend on Ghostscript for PDF and PostScript file handling.

3. Increased Attack Surface: The existence of this vulnerability may contribute to a wider range of attack vectors, as a compromise in document handling could potentially lead to further exploits within the system architecture.

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