CVE-2008-5420
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 · uneditedThe SAN Manager Master Agent service (aka msragent.exe) in EMC Control Center before 6.1 does not properly authenticate SST_SENDFILE requests, which allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files.
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 SAN Manager Master Agent service (msragent.exe) in EMC Control Center before version 6.1 lacks proper authentication validation for SST_SENDFILE requests, enabling remote unauthenticated attackers to read arbitrary files from the filesystem.
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<= 6.0= 5.2CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N
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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Verify if msragent.exe service is runningCheck running processes or Windows services for msragent.exe, or query the service status using 'sc query msragent' or 'Get-Service -Name msragent' in PowerShellAffected if msragent.exe process or service is running on the system
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Determine installed EMC Control Center versionCheck the program version through Windows Add/Remove Programs, or look for version information in the EMC Control Center installation directory, typically found in registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\EMC\ControlCenter or the program files folderAffected if The installed version is 5.2 or any version 6.0 and below (versions 6.1 and later are not affected)
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Identify network exposure of msragent.exe serviceCheck which ports msragent.exe is listening on using 'netstat -an | findstr LISTENING' or by examining firewall rules, then verify if these ports are accessible from untrusted networksAffected if The msragent.exe service port is exposed to untrusted network segments (the vulnerability allows remote unauthenticated file read)
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Confirm the SST_SENDFILE request handler is presentExamine the msragent.exe binary or its configuration files in the EMC Control Center installation directory to verify the SST_SENDFILE command handler exists (this is the vulnerable component)Affected if The SST_SENDFILE functionality is present in the installed version
The environment is affected if msragent.exe is running AND the EMC Control Center version is 5.2 or 6.0 or below, and the service is network-accessible to allow remote unauthenticated file reads.
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 dataUpgrade EMC Control Center to version 6.1 or later which includes proper SST_SENDFILE request authentication. Until then, restrict network access to the msragent.exe service port.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing5.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-5420 — 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-2008-5420 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
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