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Fencer Vulns
critical 10.0

CVE-2008-3533 in the critical feed json

Format string vulnerability in the window_error function in yelp-window.c in yelp in Gnome after 2.19.90 and before 2.24 allows remote atta…

published 2008-08-18 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3519

cvss
10.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
19.4%
EPSS 19.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

Format string vulnerability in the window_error function in yelp-window.c in yelp in Gnome after 2.19.90 and before 2.24 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via format string specifiers in an invalid URI on the command line, as demonstrated by use of yelp within (1) man or (2) ghelp URI handlers in Firefox, Evolution, and unspecified other programs.

Patch / fix

  • gnome yelp 2.24
  • yelp Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.22.1-4

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-3533

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-2008-3533 updated

yelp: Invalid URI format string vulnerability (remote arbitrary code execution)

  • Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat products
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

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

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-32248)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

19.39% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-32248 Yelp 2.23.1 - Invalid URI Format String dos, 2008-08-13
  • bugs.launchpad.net https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+bug/254860 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugzilla.gnome.org http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=546364 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • bugzilla.gnome.org http://bugzilla.gnome.org/attachment.cgi?id=115890 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-134 Use of Externally-Controlled Format String

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.