# CVE-2008-0983: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the lighttpd web server by opening many connections, causing a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 26 Feb 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2008-0983, DSA-1609-1, GHSA-fxrf-v868-58jw

## What is CVE-2008-0983?

CVE-2008-0983 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 26 Feb 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

lighttpd 1.4.18, and possibly other versions before 1.5.0, does not properly calculate the size of a file descriptor array, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a large number of connections, which triggers an out-of-bounds access.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-0983?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Lighttpd Lighttpd.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-0983?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2008-0983 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-0983 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2019-11072](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-11072/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2007-3949](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-3949/): Security feature bypass in n/a (high 8.3)
- [CVE-2007-1870](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-1870/): Null dereference in n/a (high 7.8)
- [CVE-2022-30780](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-30780/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2025-12642](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-12642/): HTTP Header Smuggling via Trailer Merge (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-0983 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-0983 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 26 Feb 2008. 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-2008-0983 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-2008-0983/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0983/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-0983
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-0983
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-0983

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-0983/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.