CVE-2008-5687
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 · uneditedMediaWiki 1.11, and other versions before 1.13.3, does not properly protect against the download of backups of deleted images, which might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via requests for files in images/deleted/.
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 confidenceMediaWiki versions 1.11 and before 1.13.3 fail to properly restrict access to backup copies of deleted images stored in the images/deleted/ directory. This allows unauthenticated remote attackers to directly request and download these archived image files, potentially exposing sensitive or formerly deleted content.
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= 1.11= 1.11.1= 1.11.2= 1.12.0= 1.12.1= 1.12.2= 1.12.3= 1.13.0= 1.13.1= 1.13.2CVSS 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
- Partial
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/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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Determine installed MediaWiki versionCheck the includes/Defines.php file for $wgVersion variable, or check the version number displayed in the page footer of your wiki (accessible to any user).Affected if Installed version is 1.11, 1.11.1, 1.11.2, 1.12.0, 1.12.1, 1.12.2, 1.12.3, 1.13.0, 1.13.1, or 1.13.2.
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Check for deleted images directoryLocate the images/deleted/ subdirectory within your MediaWiki installation directory. List its contents to see if any archived image files exist.Affected if The images/deleted/ directory exists and contains files.
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Verify web server access controlsInspect your Apache .htaccess file, Apache configuration, or nginx configuration for rules that explicitly deny direct HTTP access to the images/deleted/ directory path.Affected if No web server access control rules exist to block direct access to images/deleted/, allowing any HTTP request to retrieve files from that directory.
You are affected if you run MediaWiki version 1.11 through 1.13.2, have the images/deleted/ directory populated with archived files, and lack web server-level restrictions blocking direct access to that directory.
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 MediaWiki to version 1.13.3 or later, or implement web server-level access controls (e.g., deny rules in Apache/nginx) to block direct access to the images/deleted/ directory.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-5687 — 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-2008-5687 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
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