CVE-2008-1778
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 · uneditedUnspecified vulnerability in the floating point context switch implementation in Sun Solaris 9 and 10 on x86 platforms might allow local users to cause a denial of service (application exit), corrupt data, or trigger incorrect calculations via unknown vectors.
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 · moderate confidenceVulnerability in the floating point context switch implementation in Sun Solaris 9 and 10 on x86 platforms. The flaw allows local users to manipulate FPU (floating-point unit) context switching, potentially causing application exit (DoS), data corruption, or incorrect calculations through unspecified vectors.
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= 5.9= 5.10CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the operating system versionRun 'uname -a' to confirm this is SunOS/Solaris and note the version number (5.9 = Solaris 9, 5.10 = Solaris 10)Affected if The output shows SunOS 5.9 or SunOS 5.10
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Confirm the hardware platformRun 'uname -m' or 'arch' to identify the system architectureAffected if The output shows x86, i386, or i686 (the vulnerability only affects x86 platforms)
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Check the installed kernel patch levelRun 'showrev -p' to list installed kernel patches and search for Sun/Oracle patches addressing this CVEAffected if No patch for CVE-2008-1778 is installed or the patch status cannot be verified
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Identify untrusted local user accessReview /etc/passwd and check for unprivileged user accounts that could execute code on the systemAffected if Untrusted or unprivileged local user accounts exist and can log in
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Assess FPU-intensive workload usageReview running processes for applications that heavily use floating-point operations (scientific computing, financial software, graphics rendering)Affected if FPU-intensive applications run with privileges that could be affected by context switching issues
A system is affected if it runs Solaris 9 or 10 on x86, lacks the relevant security patch, and permits untrusted local users access to the system.
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 dataApply Sun/Oracle kernel patches for CVE-2008-1778. If patches are unavailable (end-of-life Solaris), restrict local user access, monitor for suspicious local activity, and consider migrating to supported OS versions.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-1778 — 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-2008-1778 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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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.
- 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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