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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.3

CVE-2008-3916 json

Heap-based buffer overflow in the strip_escapes function in signal.c in GNU ed before 1.0 allows context-dependent or user-assisted attacke…

published 2008-09-04 18 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2008-3901

cvss
9.3
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
3.6%
EPSS 3.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 89%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Heap-based buffer overflow in the strip_escapes function in signal.c in GNU ed before 1.0 allows context-dependent or user-assisted attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long filename. NOTE: since ed itself does not typically run with special privileges, this issue only crosses privilege boundaries when ed is invoked as a third-party component.

Patch / fix

  • ed Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 0.7-2

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2008-3916

  • ed RHEL 2.1 0.2-21.1
  • ed RHEL 3 0.2-33.30E.1
  • ed RHEL 4 0.2-36.el4_7.1
  • ed RHEL 5 0.2-39.el5_2

red hat advisories RHSA-2008:0946

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-2008-3916 updated

ed: Heap-based buffer overflow (arb. code execution)

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 ed 0.2-33.30E.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) ed 0.2-39.el5_2 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (Advanced Server) version 2.1 ed 0.2-21.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 ed 0.2-33.30E.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 ed 0.2-36.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) ed 0.2-39.el5_2
    +8 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 ed 0.2-36.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1 ed 0.2-21.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 ed 0.2-33.30E.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 ed 0.2-36.el4_7.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1 ed 0.2-21.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 ed 0.2-33.30E.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 ed 0.2-36.el4_7.1 Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1 ed 0.2-21.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2008:0946

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

3.60% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 89% 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-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.