CVE-2008-4250 Microsoft Windows Buffer Overflow

What is CVE-2008-4250?

CVE-2008-4250 is a critical memory corruption vulnerability in Microsoft Windows 2000, published on 23 Oct 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

Official description

The Server service in Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4, XP SP2 and SP3, Server 2003 SP1 and SP2, Vista Gold and SP1, Server 2008, and 7 Pre-Beta allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted RPC request that triggers the overflow during path canonicalization, as exploited in the wild by Gimmiv.A in October 2008, aka "Server Service Vulnerability."

Weakness: CWE-94, CWE-119

Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-4250?

It affects 5 products.

Products include Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Xp.

How do I fix CVE-2008-4250?

No fix has been published for CVE-2008-4250 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available. US federal agencies must fix it by 3 Jun 2026.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2008-4250 being exploited?

Yes. Attackers have exploited CVE-2008-4250 in the wild since at least 20 May 2026.

Public exploit code: 1 Metasploit module, 6 Exploit-DB entries and 4 proofs of concept on GitHub.

Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows 2000

• CVE-2010-0232 Microsoft Windows Kernel Exception Handler Exploited High 7.8
• CVE-2009-1123 Microsoft Windows Improper Input Validation Exploited High 7.8
• CVE-2002-0367 Microsoft Windows Privilege Escalation Exploited High 7.8
• CVE-2010-0269 Memory corruption in n/a Critical 10.0
• CVE-2010-0231 Weak cryptography in n/a Critical 10.0

All Microsoft Windows 2000 vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-3v68-r58v-m4c2.