# CVE-2008-0008: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by causing PulseAudio to fail dropping root permissions due to unchecked return values.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Jan 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2008-0008, DSA-1476-1, GHSA-8542-rfhf-wf9j, openSUSE-SU-2024:11200-1

## What is CVE-2008-0008?

CVE-2008-0008 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 Jan 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The pa_drop_root function in PulseAudio 0.9.8, and a certain 0.9.9 build, does not check return values from (1) setresuid, (2) setreuid, (3) setuid, and (4) seteuid calls when attempting to drop privileges, which might allow local users to gain privileges by causing those calls to fail via attacks such as resource exhaustion.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-0008?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `pulseaudio` | openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 15.0-3.1 |

Products: Pulseaudio Pulseaudio.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-0008?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2008-0008 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-0008 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2007-1804](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1804/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2009-1894](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-1894/): Race condition in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2009-1299](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-1299/): Path traversal in n/a (medium 6.9)
- [CVE-2024-11586](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-11586/): Denial of service in Ubuntu's pulseaudio (medium 4.0)
- [CVE-2014-3970](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3970/): Denial of service in n/a (low 2.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-0008 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-0008 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 Jan 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-0008 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2008-0008/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0008/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-0008
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-0008
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-0008

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0008/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.