CVE-2008-7314
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 · uneditedmIRC before 6.35 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a long nickname.
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 · moderate confidencemIRC versions prior to 6.35 contain a vulnerability in nickname processing where an excessively long nickname triggers a buffer overflow or similar memory corruption, causing the application to crash. The vulnerability is remotely triggerable when a user connects to an IRC server or receives a long nickname from another user.
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< 6.35CVSS 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
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
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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Identify installed mIRC versionOpen mIRC and go to Help > About, or check the executable file properties (right-click mirc.exe > Properties > Details). The version is displayed in the Product Version field.Affected if The version shown is less than 6.35 (for example, 6.34, 6.33, or earlier)
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Confirm mIRC is used for IRC connectionsVerify that the system has mIRC installed and configured to connect to IRC servers. Check for mIRC shortcuts, configuration files in the mIRC directory, or logs showing IRC server connections.Affected if mIRC is installed and actively used or configured to connect to IRC networks
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Verify nickname handling is activeCheck if mIRC is configured to accept incoming connections or if auto-join on startup is enabled. This can be verified by examining mIRC options under Connect > Options and checking for servers in the server list.Affected if mIRC is configured to automatically connect to IRC servers or accept incoming nickname data from other users
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Check Windows registry for version fallbackOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\mIRC or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\mIRC. Look for the Version value if present.Affected if Registry shows a version key with a value below 6.35
If mIRC version is below 6.35 and the application is used to connect to IRC servers or receive nicknames from remote users, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2008-7314.
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 data6.35
Update mIRC to version 6.35 or later. If immediate patching is not possible, consider network-based controls to filter or truncate nickname fields at the IRC server level, though this may not fully prevent client-side crashes from locally-initiated connections.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2008-7314 — 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-2008-7314 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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