# CVE-2008-5724: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges by sending a crafted IOCTL request to the ESET Smart Security firewall driver, overwriting memory.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/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:** No
- **Published:** 26 Dec 2008
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-5cvq-8gr9-5xpq

## What is CVE-2008-5724?

CVE-2008-5724 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 26 Dec 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The Personal Firewall driver (aka epfw.sys) 3.0.672.0 and earlier in ESET Smart Security 3.0.672 and earlier allows local users to gain privileges via a crafted IRP in a certain METHOD_NEITHER IOCTL request to \Device\Epfw that overwrites portions of memory.

Weakness: CWE-264

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-5724?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Eset Smart Security.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-5724?

No fix has been published for CVE-2008-5724 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2008-5724 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-5724 exists.

Public exploit code:

- ESET Smart Security 3.0.672 - 'epfw.sys' Local Privilege Escalation (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2008-5527](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5527/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 9.3)
- [CVE-2008-7107](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-7107/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2010-5160](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-5160/): Race condition in n/a (medium 4.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-5724 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-5724 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 26 Dec 2008. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-5724 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-2008-5724/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5724/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-5724
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-5724
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-5724

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-5724/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.