CVE-2008-3704
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 · uneditedHeap-based buffer overflow in the MaskedEdit ActiveX control in Msmask32.ocx 6.0.81.69, and possibly other versions before 6.0.84.18, in Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Studio .NET 2002 SP1 and 2003 SP1, and Visual FoxPro 8.0 SP1 and 9.0 SP1 and SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long Mask parameter, related to not "validating property values with boundary checks," as exploited in the wild in August 2008, aka "Masked Edit Control Memory Corruption Vulnerability."
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 analysisThe program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.
General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error 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= 6.0= 8.0= 9.0= 6.0= 2002= 2003CVSS 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
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/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 · scopedMsmask32.ocx version 6.0.84.18 or later
- Locate the Msmask32.ocx file on the affected system (typically found in system32 or SysWOW64 directories)
- Check the current version of Msmask32.ocx by right-clicking the file, selecting Properties, and viewing the File Version tab
- If the version is earlier than 6.0.84.18, obtain the updated version from Microsoft Windows Update or the specific Microsoft security patch for this vulnerability
- Apply the Microsoft security update through Windows Update or manually replace Msmask32.ocx with version 6.0.84.18 or later
- Restart any applications that utilize the MaskedEdit ActiveX control
- Verify the updated version by checking the file properties after installation
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-2008-3704 — 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-2008-3704 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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- 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