# CVE-2008-6938: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the Pi3Web server and disclose its full pathname by requesting non-executable files in the ISAPI directory.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/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:** No
- **Published:** 11 Aug 2009
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-fqmg-328x-p2v7

## What is CVE-2008-6938?

CVE-2008-6938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Aug 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Pi3Web 2.0.3 before PL2, when installed on Windows as a desktop application and without using the Pi3Web/Conf/Intenet.pi3, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash or hang) and obtain the full pathname of the server via a request to a file in the ISAPI directory that is not an executable DLL, which triggers the crash when the DLL load fails, as demonstrated using Isapi\users.txt.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-6938?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Holger Zimmermann Pi3web.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-6938?

No fix has been published for CVE-2008-6938 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2008-6938 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2008-6938 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Pi3Web 2.0.3 - 'ISAPI' Remote Denial of Service (exploitdb)
- Pi3Web ISAPI DoS (metasploit)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-6938 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-6938 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 11 Aug 2009. 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-2008-6938 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-2008-6938/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-6938/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-6938
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-6938
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-6938

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-6938/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.