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Fencer Vulns
high 7.6

CVE-2008-3863 json

Stack-based buffer overflow in the read_special_escape function in src/psgen.c in GNU Enscript 1.6.1 and 1.6.4 beta, when the -e (aka speci…

published 2008-10-23 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3849

cvss
7.6
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
8.4%
EPSS 8.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 94%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in the read_special_escape function in src/psgen.c in GNU Enscript 1.6.1 and 1.6.4 beta, when the -e (aka special escapes processing) option is enabled, allows user-assisted remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted ASCII file, related to the setfilename command.

Patch / fix

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

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-3863

  • 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
  • enscript RHEL 5 1.6.4-4.1.1.el5_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:1021RHSA-2008:1016

  • enscript openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.6.6-1.15

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10737-1

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-2008-3863 updated cvss 4.4

enscript: "setfilename" special escape buffer overflow

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 enscript 1.6.1-24.7
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:1021
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) enscript 1.6.4-4.1.1.el5_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:1016
  • 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
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:1021
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) enscript 1.6.4-4.1.1.el5_2
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:1016
  • 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 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
    +2 more products
    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

8.36% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 94% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 7.6 AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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.