# CVE-2008-4609: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can exhaust TCP connection queues via state table manipulation, causing denial of service across multiple operating systems.

- **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:** 20 Oct 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** AZL-6513, DEBIAN-CVE-2008-4609, GHSA-vf4j-pjcc-qf79, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2008-4609, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2008-4609, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2008-4609

## What is CVE-2008-4609?

CVE-2008-4609 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 20 Oct 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The TCP implementation in (1) Linux, (2) platforms based on BSD Unix, (3) Microsoft Windows, (4) Cisco products, and probably other operating systems allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (connection queue exhaustion) via multiple vectors that manipulate information in the TCP state table, as demonstrated by sockstress.

Weakness: CWE-16

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-4609?

It affects 19 products.


Products: Bsd Bsd, Bsdi Bsd Os, Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 Firmware, Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120 Firmware, Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3120x Firmware, Cisco Ios, Dragonflybsd Dragonflybsd, Freebsd Freebsd, Linux kernel, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Xp, Midnightbsd Midnightbsd, Netbsd Netbsd, Openbsd Openbsd, Oracle Solaris, Trustedbsd Trustedbsd.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-4609?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2008-4609 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-4609 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Public exploit code:

- Sockstress (CVE-2008-4609)  DDoS implementation written in Go (github_poc): https://github.com/mrclki/sockstress

## Other vulnerabilities in Cisco Ios

- [CVE-2001-0670](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2001-0670/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-1999-1471](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1471/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2014-7250](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-7250/): Denial of service in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-1999-1098](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1098/): Weak cryptography in n/a (medium 5.0)
- [CVE-1999-1214](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1214/): Missing authorization in n/a (low 2.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-4609 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-4609 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Cisco Ios, published on 20 Oct 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-2008-4609 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Cisco Ios. 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-2008-4609/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4609/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-4609
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-4609
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-4609

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4609/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.