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OpenldapApplication

CVE-2008-2952

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-07-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
liblber/io.c in OpenLDAP 2.2.4 to 2.4.10 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (program termination) via crafted ASN.1 BER datagrams that trigger an assertion error.

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

OpenLDAP's liblber library (io.c) fails to properly handle malformed ASN.1 BER (Basic Encoding Rules) datagrams. When receiving specially crafted packets, an assertion error is triggered in the BER decoding routine, causing the OpenLDAP daemon to terminate abruptly.

MitigationUpgrade OpenLDAP to a version newer than 2.4.10 where the BER parsing has been corrected. Additionally, consider network-level filtering to limit exposure of LDAP services to untrusted sources.

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
OpenldapApplication
Affected:= 2.2.4= 2.2.5= 2.2.6= 2.2.7= 2.2.8= 2.2.9= 2.3.4= 2.3.5= 2.3.6= 2.3.7= 2.3.8= 2.3.9

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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. Verify OpenLDAP is installed
    Run 'ldapd -V' or 'slapd -V' to check for OpenLDAP server binaries, or check package manager output (rpm -q openldap, dpkg -l openldap, etc.)
    Affected if No OpenLDAP installation found means not affected
  2. Identify installed OpenLDAP version
    Execute 'slapd -V' or 'ldapd -V' and note the full version string returned
    Affected if Version number matches any of: 2.2.4, 2.2.5, 2.2.6, 2.2.7, 2.2.8, 2.2.9, 2.3.4, 2.3.5, 2.3.6, 2.3.7, 2.3.8, or 2.3.9
  3. Confirm LDAP service is running and network-accessible
    Check service status (systemctl status slapd or ps aux | grep slapd) and verify listening port (netstat -anp | grep 389 or ss -tlnp | grep 389)
    Affected if LDAP daemon (slapd) is running and bound to a network interface accessible to untrusted sources
  4. Assess network exposure of LDAP port
    Review firewall rules (iptables -L or nft list ruleset) and network configuration to determine if port 389/636 is exposed to untrusted networks
    Affected if LDAP service port is reachable from untrusted network segments - exploitation requires receiving malformed BER packets

You are affected if OpenLDAP version is 2.2.4-2.2.9 or 2.3.4-2.3.9 AND the LDAP daemon is running and network-accessible to potential attackers.

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

Upgrade OpenLDAP to a version newer than 2.4.10 where the BER parsing has been corrected. Additionally, consider network-level filtering to limit exposure of LDAP services to untrusted sources.

Fix this in Openldap Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $890
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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-2008-2952 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