Is CVE-2016-7979 in the CISA KEV catalog?

No. CVE-2016-7979 is not currently on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list.

What is the CVSS severity of CVE-2016-7979?

CVE-2016-7979 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (CRITICAL).

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2016-7979?

CVE-2016-7979 has an EPSS score of 6.42% (93th percentile), estimating the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2016-7979?

Upgrade ghostscript on debian 11 to 9.19~dfsg-3.1 or later. Fixes are available for 5 affected products.

CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2016-7979

CRITICALEPSS 93th pctl

9.8

CVSS v3

NVD

Description

Ghostscript before 9.21 might allow remote attackers to bypass the SAFER mode protection mechanism and consequently execute arbitrary code by leveraging type confusion in .initialize_dsc_parser.

CWE-704

How to fix

Remediation Available

ghostscriptDebian

Fixed in:9.19~dfsg-3.1CVE-2016-7979

ghostscriptUbuntu

Fixed in:9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.5USN-3148-1

Fixed in:9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.2USN-3148-1

ghostscript-xUbuntu

Fixed in:9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.5USN-3148-1

Fixed in:9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.2USN-3148-1

libgs9Ubuntu

Fixed in:9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.5USN-3148-1

Fixed in:9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.2USN-3148-1

libgs9-commonUbuntu

Fixed in:9.10~dfsg-0ubuntu10.5USN-3148-1

Fixed in:9.18~dfsg~0-0ubuntu2.2USN-3148-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorNetwork

Attack ComplexityLow

Privileges RequiredNone

User InteractionNone

ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

6.42%probability of exploitation in 30 days

93rdpercentile

High risk: more likely to be exploited than 93% of all known CVEs.

References

Patch2

Third-Party Advisory1

securityfocus.com

Other references5

Embed a live status badge for CVE-2016-7979

Markdown

[![CVE-2016-7979](https://tridentstack.com/cve/badge/CVE-2016-7979.svg)](https://tridentstack.com/cve/CVE-2016-7979)

HTML

<a href="https://tridentstack.com/cve/CVE-2016-7979"><img src="https://tridentstack.com/cve/badge/CVE-2016-7979.svg" alt="CVE-2016-7979"></a>

Find and fix vulnerabilities across your fleet

TridentStack Control continuously scans your Windows, macOS, and Linux fleet for known vulnerabilities, prioritizes them by severity and active exploitation, and patches them automatically.

Start free

This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.