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CVE-2008-2376

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-07-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
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
Integer overflow in the rb_ary_fill function in array.c in Ruby before revision 17756 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a call to the Array#fill method with a start (aka beg) argument greater than ARY_MAX_SIZE. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for other closely related integer overflows.

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

Integer overflow in Ruby's rb_ary_fill function in array.c allows attackers to cause denial of service or unspecified impact by passing a start argument greater than ARY_MAX_SIZE to Array#fill. This is an incomplete fix for related prior integer overflows.

MitigationUpdate Ruby to revision 17756 or later (or equivalent patched release) to apply the complete fix for this integer overflow vulnerability.

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
RubyApplication
Affected:= 1.8.6.230

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
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

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

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. Check installed Ruby version
    Run 'ruby --version' or 'ruby -v' to obtain the exact Ruby interpreter version
    Affected if Version is exactly 1.8.6.230
  2. Inspect Array#fill usage in code
    Search codebase for calls to Array#fill (or .fill) method, particularly look for patterns where a start index is passed as an argument
    Affected if Code calls Array#fill with a start argument that could exceed array capacity limits
  3. Identify start argument values
    Review each Array#fill call and determine the value or source of the start parameter - check if it comes from user input, external data, or calculations that could produce large values
    Affected if Start argument is derived from untrusted input or arithmetic that could produce values greater than ARY_MAX_SIZE
  4. Verify array capacity boundaries
    Check if any arrays could be filled with start indices approaching or exceeding typical array size limits (the equivalent of ARY_MAX_SIZE in the Ruby implementation)
    Affected if Arrays are manipulated with start indices beyond reasonable bounds

User is affected if running Ruby 1.8.6.230 and executing code that calls Array#fill with a start argument value greater than ARY_MAX_SIZE.

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

Update Ruby to revision 17756 or later (or equivalent patched release) to apply the complete fix for this integer overflow vulnerability.

Fix this in Ruby Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,340
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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-2008-2376 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
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