dbcve.org
Openoffice.orgApplication · Openoffice

CVE-2008-2237

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-10-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.4.1 or later.
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
Heap-based buffer overflow in OpenOffice.org (OOo) 2.x before 2.4.2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted WMF file associated with a StarOffice/StarSuite document.

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-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error 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
Openoffice.orgApplication
Affected:all versions<= 2.4.1= 2.0= 2.0.2= 2.0.3= 2.0.4= 2.1= 2.2= 2.2.1= 2.3= 2.3.1= 2.4

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.4.1
Vendor patch www.debian.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

OpenOffice.org 2.4.2 or later

  1. 1. Check the current installed version of OpenOffice.org by opening the application and navigating to Help > About OpenOffice.org, or by running 'openoffice --version' in the terminal
  2. 2. Download OpenOffice.org version 2.4.2 or a later stable release from the official OpenOffice archive or your distribution's package repository
  3. 3. Uninstall the current version of OpenOffice.org before installing the new version, or use your system's package manager to upgrade (e.g., apt-get update && apt-get upgrade openoffice.org for Debian/Ubuntu)
  4. 4. After installation, verify the new version by checking Help > About OpenOffice.org confirms version 2.4.2 or later
Caveat As a minor version upgrade within the 2.x branch, compatibility with existing documents should be maintained; test critical documents in a non-production environment first

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $3,200. Get the upgrade done

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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-2008-2237 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