# CVE-2019-8961: Denial of service in n/a

> An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause a denial of service in FlexNet Publisher by sending specific messages that trigger recursive function calls and stack exhaustion.

- **Severity:** High 7.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 21 Apr 2020
- **Updated:** 4 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-v43v-r57x-cxjw

## What is CVE-2019-8961?

CVE-2019-8961 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Apr 2020. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A Denial of Service vulnerability related to stack exhaustion has been identified in FlexNet Publisher lmadmin.exe 11.16.2. Because the message reading function calls itself recursively given a certain condition in the received message, an unauthenticated remote attacker can repeatedly send messages of that type to cause a stack exhaustion condition.

Weakness: CWE-674 (Uncontrolled Recursion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2019-8961?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Flexera Flexnet Publisher.

## How do I fix CVE-2019-8961?

No fix has been published for CVE-2019-8961 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2019-8961 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2019-8961 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2018-20033](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-20033/): Memory corruption in FlexNet Publisher (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2019-8963](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8963/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2020-12080](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12080/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2020-12081](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2020-12081/): Path traversal in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2019-8960](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8960/): Denial of service in n/a (high 7.5)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2019-8961 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2019-8961 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 21 Apr 2020. 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-2019-8961 in the wild and no public exploit code.

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-2019-8961/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8961/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-8961
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-8961
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-8961

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2019-8961/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.