# CVE-2008-7278: Weak cryptography in n/a

> Remote attackers can decrypt S/MIME emails due to low entropy from improper OpenSSL RANDFILE configuration in OTRS.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Mar 2011
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2008-7278, GHSA-rgfv-29jm-8wcc

## What is CVE-2008-7278?

CVE-2008-7278 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Otrs Otrs, published on 18 Mar 2011. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

The S/MIME feature in Open Ticket Request System (OTRS) before 2.2.5, and 2.3.x before 2.3.0-beta1, does not properly configure the RANDFILE environment variable for OpenSSL, which might make it easier for remote attackers to decrypt e-mail messages that had lower than intended entropy available for cryptographic operations, related to inability to write to the seeding file.

Weakness: CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2008-7278?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Otrs Otrs.

## How do I fix CVE-2008-7278?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2008-7278 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2008-7278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Otrs Otrs

- [CVE-2026-48188](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-48188/): SQL Injection via MySQL Quote Method (critical 9.1)
- [CVE-2013-4717](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-4717/): SQL injection in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2017-14635](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-14635/): Code injection in n/a (high 8.8)
- [CVE-2023-5422](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-5422/): SSL Certificates are not checked for E-Mail Handling (high 8.7)
- [CVE-2023-6254](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-6254/): Password is send back to client (high 8.1)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2008-7278 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2008-7278 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Otrs Otrs, published on 18 Mar 2011. 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-2008-7278 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Otrs Otrs. 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-2008-7278/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-7278/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-7278
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-7278
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2008-7278

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-7278/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.