# CVE-2002-1372: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service in CUPS by exhausting file descriptors due to unchecked return values in file and socket operations.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Sep 2004
- **Updated:** 16 Jan 2025
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2002-1372, GHSA-pj56-w5gq-p5wr

## What is CVE-2002-1372?

CVE-2002-1372 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Apple Cups, published on 1 Sep 2004. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) 1.1.14 through 1.1.17 does not properly check the return values of various file and socket operations, which could allow a remote attacker to cause a denial of service (resource exhaustion) by causing file descriptors to be assigned and not released, as demonstrated by fanta.

Weakness: CWE-252 (Unchecked Return Value)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2002-1372?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Apple Cups, Apple Mac Os X, Debian Debian Linux.

## How do I fix CVE-2002-1372?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2002-1372 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2002-1372 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Apple Cups

- [CVE-2008-5184](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5184/): Cross-site request forgery in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-3641](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-3641/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-0053](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0053/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2012-6094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2012-6094/): Missing authorization in cups (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2010-2941](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-2941/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2002-1372 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2002-1372 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Apple Cups, published on 1 Sep 2004. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2002-1372 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Apple Cups. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1372/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1372/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2002-1372
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2002-1372
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2002-1372

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1372/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.