Vulnerability Monitor

The vendors, products, and vulnerabilities you care about

CVE-2008-3443

The regular expression engine (regex.c) in Ruby 1.8.5 and earlier, 1.8.6 through 1.8.6-p286, 1.8.7 through 1.8.7-p71, and 1.9 through r18423 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop and crash) via multiple long requests to a Ruby socket, related to memory allocation failure, and as demonstrated against Webrick.

Security Impact Summary

CVE-2008-3443 is a security vulnerability that . Impacting 1 product from ruby-lang organizations running these solutions should prioritize assessment and patching.

Historical Context

Originally identified in 2008, this vulnerability predates many modern security frameworks and practices. The vulnerability landscape of that era was characterized by different threat models and less mature defense mechanisms compared to contemporary standards.

Published

2008-08-14T23:41:00.000

Last Modified

2025-04-09T00:30:58.490

Status

Deferred

Source

[email protected]

Severity

CVSSv2: 5.0 (MEDIUM)

CVSSv2 Vector

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P

Access Vector: NETWORK
Access Complexity: LOW
Authentication: NONE
Confidentiality Impact: NONE
Integrity Impact: NONE
Availability Impact: PARTIAL

Exploitability Score

10.0

Impact Score

2.9

Weaknesses

Type: Primary
CWE-399

Affected Vendors & Products

Type	Vendor	Product	Version/Range	Vulnerable?
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.6.8	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.1	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.1	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.2	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.2	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.2	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.2	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.3	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.4	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.4	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.4	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.4	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.5	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.6	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.8.7	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.0	Yes
Application	ruby-lang	ruby	1.9.0	Yes

References

http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2009/May/msg00002.html ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/31430 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/32165 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/32219 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/32371 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/32372 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/33185 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/33398 ([email protected])
http://secunia.com/advisories/35074 ([email protected])
http://securityreason.com/securityalert/4158 ([email protected])
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3549 ([email protected])
http://support.avaya.com/elmodocs2/security/ASA-2008-424.htm ([email protected])
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1695 ([email protected])
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2008-0895.html ([email protected])
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2008-0897.html ([email protected])
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/30682 ([email protected])
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1021075 ([email protected])
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-133A.html US Government Resource ([email protected])
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1297 ([email protected])
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/44688 ([email protected])
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A9570 ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/651-1/ ([email protected])
https://usn.ubuntu.com/691-1/ ([email protected])
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/6239 ([email protected])
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-October/msg00259.html ([email protected])
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-October/msg00299.html ([email protected])
http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2009/May/msg00002.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/31430 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/32165 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/32219 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/32371 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/32372 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/33185 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/33398 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://secunia.com/advisories/35074 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://securityreason.com/securityalert/4158 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3549 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://support.avaya.com/elmodocs2/security/ASA-2008-424.htm (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1695 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2008-0895.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2008-0897.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/30682 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1021075 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-133A.html US Government Resource (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1297 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/44688 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A9570 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/651-1/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://usn.ubuntu.com/691-1/ (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/6239 (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-October/msg00259.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-October/msg00299.html (af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108)

How SecUtils Interprets This CVE

SecUtils normalizes and enriches National Vulnerability Database (NVD) records by standardizing vendor and product identifiers, aggregating vulnerability metadata from both NVD and MITRE sources, and providing structured context for security teams. For ruby-lang's affected products, we extract Common Platform Enumeration (CPE) data, Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) classifications, CVSS severity metrics, and reference data to enable rapid vulnerability prioritization and asset correlation. This record contains no exploit code, proof-of-concept instructions, or attack methodologies—only defensive intelligence necessary for patch management, risk assessment, and security operations.