CVE-2008-6121
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 · uneditedCRLF injection vulnerability in SocialEngine (SE) 2.7 and earlier allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via the PHPSESSID cookie.
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 confidenceCRLF injection vulnerability in SocialEngine 2.7 and earlier allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via the PHPSESSID cookie. The application fails to properly sanitize or validate the session cookie value before using it in HTTP response headers, enabling attackers to embed carriage return (\r) and line feed (\n) characters to split headers and inject malicious 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<= 2.7CVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
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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Confirm SocialEngine installationLocate the SocialEngine installation directory and identify the version file (commonly version.txt or within admin panel under System Info). Run: find /path/to/webroot -name 'version*' -o -name '*socialengine*' 2>/dev/nullAffected if SocialEngine is found and the installed version is 2.7 or earlier
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Check installed version numberOpen the version file or access the admin panel System Info page. Compare the version number against the affected range: <= 2.7Affected if The version number returned is 2.7 or any version lower than 2.7
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Verify PHPSESSID cookie is in useMonitor HTTP traffic to the SocialEngine site using browser dev tools or a proxy (Burp, ZAP). Check if the application sets or expects a PHPSESSID cookie in requests/responsesAffected if PHPSESSID cookie is actively used by the application for session management
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Test for CRLF injection in PHPSESSIDSend an HTTP request to the SocialEngine site with a crafted PHPSESSID cookie containing CRLF sequences (e.g., PHPSESSID=test%0d%0aX-Injected:Header). Observe if the response includes the injected header or if the response is splitAffected if The application reflects the injected CRLF characters in HTTP response headers or allows header injection through the PHPSESSID cookie value
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Check application logs for evidence of exploitationReview web server access logs and application logs for entries with PHPSESSID values containing %0d%0a or raw CRLF characters, which may indicate prior exploitation attemptsAffected if Log entries show PHPSESSID values with URL-encoded or raw CRLF characters
A user is affected if SocialEngine version 2.7 or earlier is installed AND the application uses PHPSESSID cookies AND the PHPSESSID value is not validated/sanitized before being used in HTTP headers, allowing CRLF injection.
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 to a patched version of SocialEngine that properly sanitizes session cookie values and rejects or neutralizes CRLF characters in input. If no upgrade is available, implement input validation at the application boundary to filter or reject PHPSESSID values containing newline characters before they are used in HTTP responses.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-6121 — 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-2008-6121 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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