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Silc ServerApplication · Silc

CVE-2008-1429

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-03-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 1.1 or later.
See remediation →
87/100
Remediation priority · High
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
Secure Internet Live Conferencing (SILC) Server before 1.1.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via a NEW_CLIENT packet without a nickname.

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

SILC Server before version 1.1.1 contains an input validation vulnerability in its NEW_CLIENT packet handling. The server fails to validate the presence of a required nickname field, causing a null pointer dereference or similar error that crashes the daemon when processing a malformed packet.

MitigationUpgrade to SILC Server 1.1.1 or later which includes proper validation of the NEW_CLIENT packet. If immediate patching is not feasible, consider network-level filtering to reject packets appearing to lack required fields.

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
Silc ServerApplication
Affected:<= 1.1

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 SILC Server installation
    Run 'silc-server --version' or check installed packages with 'rpm -q silc-server' (RHEL) or 'dpkg -l silc-server' (Debian)
    Affected if The command returns a version number <= 1.1 or the package is installed with no version shown (assume vulnerable)
  2. Locate silc-server binary
    Run 'which silc-server' or 'find /usr -name silc-server' to find the executable path, then run it with --version flag
    Affected if Version reported is 1.1 or earlier
  3. Check running silc-server process
    Run 'ps aux | grep silc' or 'pgrep -a silc' to see if the server daemon is currently running
    Affected if The server process is active and the version is <= 1.1
  4. Review server logs for crashes
    Check /var/log/silc/ or /var/log/messages for recent crash entries, segmentation faults, or NEW_CLIENT related errors
    Affected if Logs show recent daemon crashes or null pointer errors related to client connections

You are affected if SILC Server version 1.1 or earlier is installed and running, especially if logs show crashes matching the NEW_CLIENT packet handling issue.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 1.1
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to SILC Server 1.1.1 or later which includes proper validation of the NEW_CLIENT packet. If immediate patching is not feasible, consider network-level filtering to reject packets appearing to lack required fields.

Fix this in Silc Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,800.

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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-2008-1429 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data