SafariWeb browser · Apple
CVE-2008-3170
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 · uneditedApple Safari allows web sites to set cookies for country-specific top-level domains, such as co.uk and com.au, which could allow remote attackers to perform a session fixation attack and hijack a user's HTTP session, aka "Cross-Site Cooking," a related issue to CVE-2004-0746, CVE-2004-0866, and CVE-2004-0867.
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 confidenceApple Safari fails to restrict cookie setting on country-specific top-level domains (ccTLDs) like co.uk and com.au, allowing any website to set cookies for those domains. This enables session fixation attacks where an attacker pre-establishes a session cookie value before the victim authenticates, then hijacks the authenticated session.
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
SafariWeb browser
all versionsCVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/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 the installed browserCheck if Apple Safari is the primary browser in use. On macOS, open Safari and verify the application. On iOS, check if Safari is the default browser in Settings > Safari.Affected if The browser is Apple Safari (any version, as all versions are affected per the CVE)
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Determine if ccTLD cookies can be setAttempt to set a cookie for a country-specific top-level domain (e.g., for a domain like example.co.uk or example.com.au) from a different origin. In Safari, visit a website and inspect cookie storage using Safari's Develop menu > Show Cookies, or use browser developer tools to verify if cookies for ccTLDs can be set by arbitrary origins.Affected if Safari allows setting cookies for ccTLDs like co.uk, com.au, co.jp from origins that should not have that privilege, indicating the vulnerability is present
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Check for session fixation exposureReview any web applications hosted on ccTLD domains (e.g., yoursite.co.uk). Determine if session cookies can be pre-established by a third party before user authentication. Use browser developer tools or a proxy to inspect cookie behavior during a fresh session to a ccTLD site.Affected if Session cookies for ccTLD domains can be set or influenced by external origins before user login, exposing the application to session fixation attacks
If Apple Safari (any version) is in use and interacts with ccTLD domains, the environment is affected by this vulnerability since all Safari versions fail to restrict cookie setting on country-specific TLDs.
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 dataUsers should update Safari to the latest version or use an alternative browser; web applications should implement session token regeneration after authentication regardless of the browser used.
Fix this in Safari
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,176.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-3170 — 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-2008-3170 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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