CVE-2008-3616
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 · uneditedMultiple integer overflows in the SearchKit API in Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5 through 10.5.4 allow context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) or execute arbitrary code via vectors associated with "passing untrusted input" to unspecified API functions.
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 analysisA legacy NVD category grouping numeric mistakes — overflows, truncation, sign errors — where a miscalculated value goes on to drive a dangerous decision such as a memory allocation or a bounds check. It is a bucket rather than one specific bug. Remediation is checked arithmetic and validating any computed size or index before it is used.
General guidance for the numeric errors class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
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= 10.4.11= 10.5= 10.5.1= 10.5.2= 10.5.3= 10.5.4= 10.4.11= 10.5= 10.5.1= 10.5.2= 10.5.3= 10.5.4CVSS 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
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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.
dbcve · scopedFor Mac OS X 10.5.x: upgrade to 10.5.5 or later (which includes Security Update 2008-005). For 10.4.11, there is no newer Tiger release; apply the Security Update 2008-005 patch.
- 1. Apply Apple Security Update 2008-005, released September 2008, which addresses CVE-2008-3616 in SearchKit.
- 2. This update is available via Apple Security Update (http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce//2008/Sep/msg00005.html)
- 3. For Mac OS X 10.4.11 users: Apply Security Update 2008-005 for Mac OS X 10.4.11.
- 4. For Mac OS X 10.5.x users: Apply Security Update 2008-005, or upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later which includes the fix.
- 5. After applying the update, restart the system as prompted.
- 6. Verify the update was applied by checking System Preferences > Software Update.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-3616 — 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-2008-3616 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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