Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
medium 6.8

CVE-2008-5078 json

Multiple buffer overflows in the (1) recognize_eps_file function (src/psgen.c) and (2) tilde_subst function (src/util.c) in GNU enscript 1.…

published 2008-12-19 17 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-5057

cvss
6.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.1%
EPSS 3.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 87%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Multiple buffer overflows in the (1) recognize_eps_file function (src/psgen.c) and (2) tilde_subst function (src/util.c) in GNU enscript 1.6.1, and possibly earlier, might allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an epsf escape sequence with a long filename.

Patch / fix

  • enscript Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.6.4-13

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-5078

  • enscript RHEL 2.1 1.6.1-16.7
  • enscript RHEL 3 1.6.1-24.7
  • enscript RHEL 4 1.6.1-33.el4_7.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:1021

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2008-5078 updated cvss 4.4

enscript: "epsf" special escape buffer overflows

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 enscript 1.6.1-24.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Advanced Server) version 2.1 enscript 1.6.1-16.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 enscript 1.6.1-24.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 enscript 1.6.1-33.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 enscript 1.6.1-33.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1 enscript 1.6.1-16.7
    +6 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 enscript 1.6.1-24.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 enscript 1.6.1-33.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1 enscript 1.6.1-16.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 enscript 1.6.1-24.7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 enscript 1.6.1-33.el4_7.1 Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 enscript 1.6.1-16.7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:1021

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

3.09% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 87% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.