CVE-2008-2538
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 crontab on Sun Solaris 8 through 10, and OpenSolaris before snv_93, allows local users to insert cron jobs into the crontab files of arbitrary users via unspecified 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 confidenceLocal privilege escalation vulnerability in crontab on Sun Solaris 8-10 and OpenSolaris allows unprivileged local users to inject cron jobs into arbitrary users' crontab files via unspecified vectors, potentially enabling execution of commands as other users.
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= 8= 9= 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/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.
-
Identify the operating system versionRun 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to confirm the Solaris versionAffected if The system is Sun Solaris 8, 9, or 10 (or OpenSolaris)
-
Locate crontab spool directoryCheck for /var/spool/cron/crontabs directory which stores user crontab filesAffected if The crontab spool directory exists on the system
-
Verify crontab file permissionsRun 'ls -la /var/spool/cron/crontabs/' to list permissions on individual user crontab filesAffected if Files are owned by respective users but readable or writable by other local users (permissions other than 600 or 400)
-
Check parent directory permissionsRun 'ls -la /var/spool/cron/' to verify the crontabs directory itself is not world-writableAffected if The directory has weak permissions such as 777 or allows unprivileged users to traverse and modify contents
-
Test unprivileged crontab accessAs a non-root user, attempt to list or modify another user's crontab file using 'crontab -u targetuser -l' or by directly accessing files in /var/spool/cron/crontabs/Affected if Unprivileged users can read or write to other users' crontab files
The system is affected if it is Sun Solaris 8, 9, or 10 and the crontab spool directory or individual crontab files have weak permissions that permit unprivileged local users to read or modify other users' cron jobs.
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 vendor patches for this issue; restrict local user access to systems; verify crontab file permissions are correctly configured to prevent unauthorized modification.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-2538 — 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-2008-2538 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data