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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2008-0584

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-02-05
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Multiple buffer overflows in bos.rte.control in IBM AIX 5.2 and 5.3 allow local users to gain privileges via unspecified vectors related to the (1) swap, (2) swapoff, and (3) swapon programs.

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 confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in the bos.rte.control package's swap, swapoff, and swapon utilities in IBM AIX 5.2 and 5.3 allow local users to execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges via unspecified vectors.

MitigationApply IBM's applicable patches for AIX 5.2/5.3 or upgrade to a patched version. Restrict local user access to these utilities until patches are applied.

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
AixOperating system
Affected:= 5.2= 5.3

CVSS 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
Local
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify AIX version is 5.2 or 5.3
    Run 'oslevel -r' to get the installed AIX release level. The output should show a version in the 5200 or 5300 series.
    Affected if The oslevel output contains 5200 or 5300 as the base version.
  2. Confirm bos.rte.control package is installed
    Run 'lslpp -l bos.rte.control' to list the installed fileset and its version.
    Affected if The package is installed and shows a version for AIX 5.2 or 5.3.
  3. Verify swap utilities exist
    Check for the presence of /usr/sbin/swap, /usr/sbin/swapoff, and /usr/sbin/swapon using 'ls -la /usr/sbin/swap*'.
    Affected if These binaries exist on the system.
  4. Check bos.rte.control fileset version
    Run 'lslpp -h bos.rte.control' to show the file set maintenance level and compare against unpatched versions.
    Affected if The fileset version is an unpatched release for AIX 5.2 or 5.3.

A system is affected if it runs AIX 5.2 or 5.3 with the bos.rte.control package installed containing vulnerable versions of swap, swapoff, or swapon utilities.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply IBM's applicable patches for AIX 5.2/5.3 or upgrade to a patched version. Restrict local user access to these utilities until patches are applied.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,980
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-0584 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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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