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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2008-4212

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2008-10-10
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Unspecified vulnerability in rlogind in the rlogin component in Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.5 applies hosts.equiv entries to root despite what is stated in documentation, which might allow remote attackers to bypass intended access restrictions.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:= 10.4.11= 10.5.5
Mac Os X ServerOperating system
Affected:= 10.4.11= 10.5.5

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
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 · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.securityfocus.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later (for 10.5.5 systems); migrate to a supported macOS version (for 10.4.11 systems)

  1. Identify the current Mac OS X version by running 'sw_vers' in Terminal
  2. For Mac OS X 10.5.5 (Leopard): Apply Apple Security Update 2008-006 or upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5.6 or later, which includes the fix for this rlogin vulnerability
  3. For Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger): Apple no longer provides security updates for 10.4.x; migrate to a supported operating system version
  4. If upgrading to a newer macOS version is not feasible on legacy hardware, disable the rlogin service by editing /etc/inetd.conf and commenting out the rlogin entry, then restart inetd
  5. Alternatively, disable rlogin entirely using: sudo rm /usr/libexec/rlogind
  6. Ensure /etc/hosts.equiv and ~/.rhosts files are reviewed and secured - remove any untrusted entries
  7. After applying the update, verify rlogin is not listening: sudo lsof -i | grep rlogin
Caveat Upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4.x to 10.5.x or later may cause compatibility issues with legacy applications; ensure backup and test before production upgrade

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2008-4212 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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