CVE-2008-0171

Exp

regex/v4/perl_matcher_non_recursive.hpp in the Boost regex library (aka Boost.Regex) in Boost 1.33 and 1.34 allows context-dependent attackers to cause a denial of service (failed assertion and crash) via an invalid regular expression.

Published: 2008-01-17 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2008-0171 is rated High Exploit Risk (63.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.69%). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2008-0171

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2008-0171

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 3.41% 2.69% -0.72%
2 2026-02-11 3.00% 3.41% +0.41%
3 2025-03-30 3.00%

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2008-0171

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.0 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
10.0 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2008-0171

OS Trackers for CVE-2008-0171

vendor priority summary link
gentoo normal CVE-2008-0171: 1 GLSA(s) (200802-08), 1 atom(s) (dev-libs/boost); latest impact normal. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2008-0171
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2008-0171
suse medium CVE-2008-0171 severity moderate: SUSE including 184 source package names (boost-devel-1.36.0-12.6.49, boost-devel-32bit-1.36.0-12.6.49, …), 381 product×package rows across 20 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for HPC 15 SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Legacy 15 SP2, … (20 product lines)): Fixed 380, Known Not Affected 1. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2008-0171/
ubuntu low CVE-2008-0171 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (boost), 5 status rows across 5 suites (dapper, edgy, feisty, gutsy, upstream): released 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2008-0171

Vendor comments (NVD) for CVE-2008-0171

  • Red Hat (2008-05-12T00:00:00)

    This issue did not affect the version of boost as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat is aware of this issue and is tracking it via the following bug: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=CVE-2008-0171 The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this issue as having low security impact, a future update may address this flaw.

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2008-0171

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
boost boost 1.33 cpe:2.3:a:boost:boost:1.33:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
boost boost 1.34 cpe:2.3:a:boost:boost:1.34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
boost boost_regex_library cpe:2.3:a:boost:boost_regex_library:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2008-0171

URL Tags
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=205955
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-03/msg00004.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/28511
http://secunia.com/advisories/28527
http://secunia.com/advisories/28545
http://secunia.com/advisories/28705
http://secunia.com/advisories/28860
http://secunia.com/advisories/28943
http://secunia.com/advisories/29323
http://secunia.com/advisories/48099
http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/42674 Exploit
http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/changeset/42745 Exploit
http://wiki.rpath.com/Advisories:rPSA-2008-0063
http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa/glsa-200802-08.xml
http://www.mandriva.com/en/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2008:032
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/488102/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/27325
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-570-1
http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2008/0249
https://issues.rpath.com/browse/RPL-2143
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-January/msg00760.html
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