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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.3

CVE-2008-3844 json

Certain Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5 packages for OpenSSH, as signed in August 2008 using a legitimate Red Hat GPG key, contain…

published 2008-08-27 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3830

cvss
9.3
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.7%
EPSS 2.7% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 85%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Certain Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 and 5 packages for OpenSSH, as signed in August 2008 using a legitimate Red Hat GPG key, contain an externally introduced modification (Trojan Horse) that allows the package authors to have an unknown impact. NOTE: since the malicious packages were not distributed from any official Red Hat sources, the scope of this issue is restricted to users who may have obtained these packages through unofficial distribution points. As of 20080827, no unofficial distributions of this software are known.

Patch / fix

  • openssh RHEL 4 3.9p1-11.el4_7
  • openssh RHEL 5 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1
  • openssh-server RHEL 4 3.9p1-11.el4_7
  • openssh-server RHEL 5 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1
  • openssh-askpass RHEL 4 3.9p1-11.el4_7
  • openssh-askpass RHEL 5 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1
  • openssh-clients RHEL 4 3.9p1-11.el4_7
  • openssh-clients RHEL 5 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:0855

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-2008-3844 updated

security flaw

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) openssh 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-server 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-askpass 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-clients 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS EUS (v. 4.5) openssh 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 openssh 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-server 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-clients 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-11.el4_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) openssh 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-server 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-askpass 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1, openssh-clients 4.3p2-26.el5_2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 openssh 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-server 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-clients 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-11.el4_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES EUS (v. 4.5) openssh 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-server 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-clients 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-10.RHEL4.20
    +2 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 openssh 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-server 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-clients 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-11.el4_7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 openssh 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-server 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-clients 3.9p1-11.el4_7, openssh-askpass-gnome 3.9p1-11.el4_7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:0855

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

2.66% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 85% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 9.3 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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.