CVE-2008-2667
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 · uneditedSQL injection vulnerability in the Courier Authentication Library (aka courier-authlib) before 0.60.6 on SUSE openSUSE 10.3 and 11.0, and other platforms, when MySQL and a non-Latin character set are used, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the username and unspecified other 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 confidenceSQL injection vulnerability in Courier Authentication Library (courier-authlib) before version 0.60.6 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the username field when MySQL is used with a non-Latin character set. The vulnerability stems from improper input sanitization when handling non-ASCII characters in authentication queries, enabling attackers to inject malicious SQL syntax.
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= 0.52= 0.53= 0.54= 0.55= 0.56= 0.57= 0.58= 0.59= 0.59.1= 0.59.2= 0.59.3= 0.60CVSS 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
- High
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed courier-authlib versionRun 'rpm -q courier-authlib' (RPM-based) or 'dpkg -l courier-authlib' (Debian-based) to get the installed version numberAffected if Version is 0.52, 0.53, 0.54, 0.55, 0.56, 0.57, 0.58, 0.59, 0.59.1, 0.59.2, 0.59.3, or 0.60 (versions before 0.60.6)
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Confirm MySQL backend is configuredInspect /etc/authlib/authmysqlrc or /etc/courier/authmysqlrc and look for 'MYSQL_DATABASE' and 'MYSQL_USER' directives to verify MySQL is the authentication backendAffected if MySQL is configured as the authentication database backend
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Verify MySQL character set configurationCheck /etc/authlib/authmysqlrc for 'MYSQL_CHARACTER_SET' or 'MYSQL_CHARSET' setting, or review my.cnf for character set settings applied to the authlib connectionAffected if A non-Latin character set (such as UTF-8, UTF-16, or other multi-byte character sets) is configured for MySQL authentication connections
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Locate authlib configuration filesSearch for authmysqlrc configuration files: 'find /etc -name authmysqlrc -o -name authmysql' 2>/dev/null and review their contentsAffected if Configuration files exist and show MySQL with non-Latin charset settings (versions before 0.60.6 are vulnerable regardless of charset, but the exploit specifically targets non-Latin scenarios)
If courier-authlib version is 0.60 or earlier AND MySQL is used as the authentication backend with a non-Latin character set configured, the environment is vulnerable to SQL injection via the username field.
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 courier-authlib to version 0.60.6 or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, review and restrict MySQL database access permissions and consider implementing web application firewall rules to detect SQL injection patterns.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2008-2667 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
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