CVE-2007-3988
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedSession fixation vulnerability in Virtual Hosting Control System (VHCS) 2.4.7.1 and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack web sessions by setting the PHPSESSID parameter.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceVirtual Hosting Control System (VHCS) 2.4.7.1 and earlier accepts user-supplied PHP session IDs via the PHPSESSID parameter, allowing remote attackers to fixate a session ID before victim authentication and subsequently hijack the authenticated session.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 2.4.7.1CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if VHCS is installedLook for VHCS installation directories (typically /var/www/vhcs2, /usr/local/vhcs, or within web root) and check for vhcs2 or virtual hosting control system files.Affected if VHCS software is found on the system
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Determine VHCS versionCheck the version file or about page within the VHCS installation directory. Common locations include /var/www/vhcs2/VERSION, /var/www/vhcs2/CHANGELOG, or the admin interface about section.Affected if Version is 2.4.7.1 or earlier
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Check PHP session configurationExamine the PHP configuration file (php.ini) for session.use_strict_mode setting. A value of 0 or missing means server-issued session IDs are not enforced.Affected if session.use_strict_mode is disabled (0) or not set
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Inspect session handling code for PHPSESSID acceptanceSearch VHCS PHP source files for direct use of $_REQUEST['PHPSESSID'], $_POST['PHPSESSID'], or $_GET['PHPSESSID'] without sanitization, and check if session_id() is called with user input.Affected if Code accepts and uses PHPSESSID parameter from user input without validation
Affected if VHCS version 2.4.7.1 or earlier is installed and the application accepts user-supplied PHPSESSID values without regenerating the session ID after authentication.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataRegenerate session IDs upon successful login and reject session IDs provided via URL parameters or POST data, forcing the use of server-generated session IDs.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2007-3988 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2007-3988 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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