CVE-2008-2400
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 stunnel before 4.23, when running as a service on Windows, allows local users to gain privileges via unknown attack 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 · low confidencestunnel versions prior to 4.23 contain a local privilege escalation vulnerability when running as a Windows service, allowing local users to gain elevated privileges through unspecified attack 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= 0.1= 1.0= 1.1= 1.2= 1.3= 1.4= 1.5= 1.6= 2.0= 2.1= 3.0= 3.1CVSS 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
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/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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Detect if stunnel is installedCheck for stunnel executable on the system - look for stunnel.exe in common installation directories such as C:\Program Files\stunnel or C:\stunnel, or check if stunnel is in the system PATHAffected if stunnel is found installed on the system
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Identify the installed stunnel versionRun 'stunnel -version' or 'stunnel.exe -version' from the command line to display the version number, or check the version property of the stunnel.exe fileAffected if the version displayed is 4.22 or lower, or any of these: 0.1, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 3.1
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Verify if stunnel runs as a Windows serviceOpen Windows Services console (services.msc) and look for a service named 'stunnel', or run 'sc query stunnel' from command line to check service statusAffected if stunnel is configured and running as a Windows service
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Confirm vulnerability applicabilityCross-reference: if stunnel version is prior to 4.23 AND stunnel is running as a Windows service, the environment matches the vulnerability conditions described in CVE-2008-2400Affected if both conditions are true: stunnel version is below 4.23 AND stunnel runs as a Windows service
A user is affected if stunnel version 4.22 or lower is installed and configured to run as a Windows service on Windows, as the privilege escalation vulnerability only applies under these specific conditions.
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 dataUpgrade stunnel to version 4.23 or later to address the privilege escalation vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-2400 — 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-2008-2400 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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- 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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