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Kerberos 5Application · Mit

CVE-2008-0947

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-03-19
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
Buffer overflow in the RPC library used by libgssrpc and kadmind in MIT Kerberos 5 (krb5) 1.4 through 1.6.3 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by triggering a large number of open file descriptors.

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 vulnerability in MIT Kerberos 5's RPC library (libgssrpc) and kadmind daemon allows remote code execution by triggering a large number of open file descriptors. The vulnerability affects versions 1.4 through 1.6.3, indicating insufficient bounds checking or resource limit handling in the file descriptor allocation path.

MitigationUpgrade to MIT Kerberos 5 version 1.6.4 or later, which contains the patch for proper file descriptor limit handling in the RPC library.

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
Kerberos 5Application
Affected:= 1.4= 1.4.1= 1.4.2= 1.4.3= 1.4.4= 1.5= 1.5.1= 1.5.2= 1.5.3= 1.6= 1.6.1= 1.6.2

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/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. Identify MIT Kerberos 5 installation and version
    Run 'kinit --version' or check package manager (rpm -q krb5-server, dpkg -l krb5-kdc, etc.)
    Affected if Version falls within 1.4 to 1.6.3 inclusive
  2. Confirm kadmind daemon is running
    Run 'ps aux | grep kadmind' or 'systemctl status kadmind'
    Affected if kadmind process is active and listening on network ports
  3. Verify kadmind network exposure
    Check listening ports with 'netstat -tlnp | grep kadmind' or 'ss -tlnp | grep kadmind'
    Affected if kadmind is bound to accessible network interfaces (0.0.0.0 or external IP)
  4. Check current file descriptor limits
    Inspect /proc/sys/fs/file-max and run 'ulimit -n' in the kadmind process context
    Affected if File descriptor limits are high enough that the buffer overflow condition can be triggered

You are affected if MIT Kerberos 5 version 1.4 through 1.6.3 is installed and the kadmind daemon is running and network-accessible, allowing a remote attacker to trigger the file descriptor handling flaw.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade to MIT Kerberos 5 version 1.6.4 or later, which contains the patch for proper file descriptor limit handling in the RPC library.

Recommended fix High confidence

MIT Kerberos 5 version 1.6.4 or later (preferably latest stable 1.21.x)

  1. 1. Backup your current Kerberos 5 configuration and keytabs: cp -r /etc/krb5.conf /etc/krb5.conf.bak and cp -r /var/kerberos /var/kerberos.bak
  2. 2. Stop all Kerberos daemons (kadmind, krb5kdc, kadmin.local if running): systemctl stop krb5kdc kadmind or the equivalent for your system
  3. 3. Upgrade MIT Kerberos 5 to version 1.6.4 or later. For example, using your package manager: apt-get install krb5-kdc krb5-admin-server (Debian/Ubuntu) or yum update krb5-server (RHEL/CentOS)
  4. 4. Verify the installed version matches a fixed release: krb5-config --version
  5. 5. Restore your Kerberos configuration from backup if needed
  6. 6. Start the Kerberos daemons: systemctl start krb5kdc kadmind
  7. 7. Test authentication and admin functionality to confirm services operate normally
Caveat Major version upgrades may require configuration adjustments; review MIT Kerberos 5 release notes for compatibility notes between 1.4.x and 1.6.x

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Kerberos 5 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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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-2008-0947 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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