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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.0

CVE-2008-3790 json

The REXML module in Ruby 1.8.6 through 1.8.6-p287, 1.8.7 through 1.8.7-p72, and 1.9 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of…

published 2008-08-27 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3776

cvss
5.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
15.2%
EPSS 15.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The REXML module in Ruby 1.8.6 through 1.8.6-p287, 1.8.7 through 1.8.7-p72, and 1.9 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via an XML document with recursively nested entities, aka an "XML entity explosion."

Patch / fix

  • ruby RHEL 4 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1
  • ruby RHEL 5 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5
  • irb RHEL 4 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1
  • ruby-ri RHEL 5 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5
  • ruby-irb RHEL 5 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5
  • ruby-libs RHEL 4 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1
  • ruby-libs RHEL 5 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5
  • ruby-mode RHEL 4 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:0897

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-2008-3790 updated

ruby: DoS vulnerability in the REXML module

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) ruby 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-ri 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-irb 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-libs 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-mode 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-rdoc 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 irb 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-libs 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-mode 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-tcltk 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) ruby 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-ri 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-irb 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-libs 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-mode 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-rdoc 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 irb 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-libs 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-mode 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-tcltk 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) ruby 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-ri 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-irb 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-libs 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-mode 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, ruby-rdoc 1.8.5-5.el5_2.5, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 irb 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-libs 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-mode 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-tcltk 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1
    +1 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 irb 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-libs 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-mode 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1, ruby-tcltk 1.8.1-7.el4_7.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:0897

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-32292)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

15.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-32292 Ruby 1.9 - REXML Remote Denial of Service dos, 2008-08-23
  • ruby-lang.org http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2008/08/23/dos-vulnerability-in-rexml/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-20 Improper Input Validation

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.