dbcve.org
SafariWeb browser · Apple

CVE-2008-1999

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-04-28
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
Apple Safari 3.1.1 allows remote attackers to spoof the address bar by placing many "invisible" characters in the userinfo subcomponent of the authority component of the URL (aka the user field), as demonstrated by %E3%80%80 sequences.

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

Apple Safari 3.1.1 allows remote attackers to spoof the address bar by inserting invisible Unicode characters (specifically %E3%80%80 sequences representing U+3000 ideographic space) into the userinfo field of a URL. The browser fails to properly sanitize or render these invisible characters in the authority component, allowing malicious sites to display欺骗性的合法域名.

MitigationUpgrade to Safari 3.1.2 or later which contains the fix for this vulnerability. Users should manually verify URL authenticity before entering sensitive information.

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
SafariWeb browser
Affected:= 3.1.1

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
Partial
Availability
None

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

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 installed Safari version
    On Mac: Safari > About Safari. On Windows: Help > About Safari. Or check the application bundle version.
    Affected if Version displayed is exactly 3.1.1 (build 5525.27.1)
  2. Confirm vulnerability condition
    This flaw requires the browser to render URLs with the address bar feature enabled. The vulnerability manifests when parsing URLs containing invisible Unicode characters (U+3000 ideographic space, encoded as %E3%80%80) in the userinfo field before the domain name.
    Affected if The installed Safari version is 3.1.1 and the address bar displays URLs to the user

You are affected if your installed Safari version is exactly 3.1.1 and you use the browser to navigate and view URLs in the address bar.

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

Upgrade to Safari 3.1.2 or later which contains the fix for this vulnerability. Users should manually verify URL authenticity before entering sensitive information.

Fix this in Safari Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA8.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,720
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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-2008-1999 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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