# CVE-2008-2956: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers could cause denial of service in Pidgin via malformed XML, though the issue is disputed and lacks reproduction details.

- **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:** No
- **Published:** 1 Jul 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2008-2956, GHSA-f69j-274h-2m7w

## What is CVE-2008-2956?

CVE-2008-2956 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Pidgin Pidgin, published on 1 Jul 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Memory leak in Pidgin 2.0.0, and possibly other versions, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via malformed XML documents. NOTE: this issue has been disputed by the upstream vendor, who states: "I was never able to identify a scenario under which a problem occurred and the original reporter wasn't able to supply any sort of reproduction details."

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-2956?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Pidgin Pidgin.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-2956?

No fix has been published for CVE-2008-2956 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2008-2956 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-2956 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Pidgin Pidgin

- [CVE-2013-6490](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6490/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2016-1000030](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2016-1000030/): Code injection in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2013-6486](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6486/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2011-3185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2011-3185/): Command injection in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2009-1376](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-1376/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 9.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-2956 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-2956 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Pidgin Pidgin, published on 1 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-2008-2956 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Pidgin Pidgin. 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-2008-2956/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-2956/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-2956
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-2956
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-2956

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-2956/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.