# CVE-2008-5185: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause a denial of service via infinite loop in GeSHi library by submitting malformed XML sequences.

- **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:** 21 Nov 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2008-5185, GHSA-mc42-h89m-gwgp

## What is CVE-2008-5185?

CVE-2008-5185 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Nov 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The highlighting functionality in geshi.php in GeSHi before 1.0.8 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via an XML sequence containing an opening delimiter without a closing delimiter, as demonstrated using "<".

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-5185?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Geshi Geshi.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-5185?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2008-5185 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-5185 exists.

Public exploit code:

- GeSHi 1.0.x - XML Parsing Remote Denial of Service (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2008-5186](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5186/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2005-3080](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-3080/): Path traversal in n/a (medium 5.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-5185 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-5185 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Nov 2008. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-5185 exists.

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-2008-5185/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5185/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-5185
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-5185
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-5185

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5185/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.