CVE-2008-5372
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 · uneditedsdm-login in sdm-terminal 0.4.0b allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /tmp/sdm.autologin.once temporary file.
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 confidenceThe sdm-login component in sdm-terminal 0.4.0b creates a temporary file at /tmp/sdm.autologin.once without checking for existing symlinks or using secure file creation methods. A local attacker can pre-create a symlink at this path pointing to any target file, causing sdm-login to overwrite that file when it writes to the temporary file.
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= 0.4.0bCVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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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Check if sdm-terminal is installed and its versionRun 'dpkg -l sdm-terminal' or 'rpm -q sdm-terminal' depending on your package manager, or look for sdm-terminal in your installed packagesAffected if The installed version is 0.4.0b exactly
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Verify the sdm-login component existsLocate the sdm-login binary by running 'which sdm-login' or searching for it in common binary paths like /usr/bin/, /usr/local/bin/Affected if The sdm-login binary is present on the system
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Inspect the /tmp directory for the vulnerable file pathRun 'ls -la /tmp/ | grep sdm' to see if any sdm-related files or symlinks exist in /tmpAffected if A file or symlink named sdm.autologin.once exists at /tmp/
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Check if a symlink exists at the vulnerable pathRun 'ls -la /tmp/sdm.autologin.once' and check if the first character is 'l' (indicating a symlink)Affected if The path /tmp/sdm.autologin.once is a symlink (first character is 'l' in ls -la output)
You are affected if sdm-terminal version 0.4.0b is installed and the sdm-login component runs, creating the temp file at /tmp/sdm.autologin.once, or if a symlink already exists at that path.
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 dataReplace insecure temporary file creation with secure methods such as using the O_EXCL flag or mkstemp() to prevent symlink attacks, or verify the file is not a symlink before writing.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-5372 — 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-2008-5372 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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