# CVE-2008-2375: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service via memory consumption in vsftpd when PAM is enabled, requiring an upgrade to fix.

- **Severity:** High 7.1 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 9 Jul 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-8hxj-gw9h-vgfv, RHSA-2008:0579, RHSA-2008:0680

## What is CVE-2008-2375?

CVE-2008-2375 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jul 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Memory leak in a certain Red Hat deployment of vsftpd before 2.0.5 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3 and 4, when PAM is used, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a large number of invalid authentication attempts within the same session, a different vulnerability than CVE-2007-5962.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-2375?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `vsftpd` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::as | All versions | 0:1.2.1-3E.16 |
| `vsftpd-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::as | All versions | 0:1.2.1-3E.16 |
| `vsftpd` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::es | All versions | 0:1.2.1-3E.16 |
| `vsftpd-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::es | All versions | 0:1.2.1-3E.16 |
| `vsftpd` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:2.0.1-6.el4 |
| `vsftpd-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:2.0.1-6.el4 |
| `vsftpd` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:2.0.1-6.el4 |
| `vsftpd-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:2.0.1-6.el4 |

Products: Redhat Vsftpd.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-2375?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2008-2375 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-2375 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-2375 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-2375 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 9 Jul 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-2008-2375 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-2008-2375/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-2375/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-2375
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-2375
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-2375

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-2375/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.