# CVE-2008-5300: Denial of service in n/a

> Local attackers can cause a denial of service in the Linux kernel by triggering an out-of-memory condition through excessive sendmsg calls during AF_UNIX garbage collection.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.9 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 1 Dec 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w3cc-g5gv-rc8v

## What is CVE-2008-5300?

CVE-2008-5300 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Dec 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Linux kernel 2.6.28 allows local users to cause a denial of service ("soft lockup" and process loss) via a large number of sendmsg function calls, which does not block during AF_UNIX garbage collection and triggers an OOM condition, a different vulnerability than CVE-2008-5029.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-5300?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-5300?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2008-5300 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-5300 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-5300 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-5300 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Dec 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-5300 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. 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-2008-5300/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5300/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-5300
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-5300
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-5300

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5300/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.