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JdkApplication · Sun

CVE-2008-1186

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-03-06
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Unspecified vulnerability in the Virtual Machine for Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and JDK 5.0 Update 13 and earlier, and SDK/JRE 1.4.2_16 and earlier, allows remote attackers to gain privileges via an untrusted application or applet, a different issue than CVE-2008-1185, aka "the second issue."

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-264

A legacy NVD category covering weaknesses where permissions or privileges are assigned, checked, or dropped incorrectly, so an action ends up running with more access than it should. It is an umbrella label from older records, not a single flaw. The remedy depends on the specific case, but the throughline is least privilege with explicit, checked transitions wherever privilege changes.

General guidance for the permissions, privileges & access controls class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
JdkApplication
Affected:= 1.5.0
JreApplication
Affected:= 1.4.2= 1.4.2_1= 1.4.2_2= 1.4.2_3= 1.4.2_4= 1.4.2_5= 1.4.2_6= 1.4.2_7= 1.4.2_8= 1.4.2_9= 1.4.2_10= 1.4.2_11
SdkApplication
Affected:= 1.4.2= 1.4.2_1= 1.4.2_2= 1.4.2_3= 1.4.2_4= 1.4.2_5= 1.4.2_6= 1.4.2_7= 1.4.2_8= 1.4.2_9= 1.4.2_10= 1.4.2_11

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
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

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
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch sunsolve.sun.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

JDK 5.0 Update 14+ or JRE/SDK 1.4.2_17+

  1. 1. Identify all systems running affected Java versions (JDK 5.0 Update 13 or earlier, JRE/SDK 1.4.2_16 or earlier)
  2. 2. Download the fixed Java versions: JDK 5.0 Update 14 or later, or JRE/SDK 1.4.2_17 or later
  3. 3. Uninstall the affected Java installations from all affected systems
  4. 4. Install the patched Java versions on each affected system
  5. 5. Verify the installed version matches the fixed release (e.g., java -version)
  6. 6. Ensure any applications or applets using Java are tested with the new version
Caveat Older Java applications may have compatibility issues with newer Java versions; test thoroughly before production deployment

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

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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-2008-1186 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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