CVE-2008-3389

Stack-based buffer overflow in the libbecompat library in Ingres 2.6, Ingres 2006 release 1 (aka 9.0.4), and Ingres 2006 release 2 (aka 9.1.0) on Linux and HP-UX allows local users to gain privileges by setting a long value of an environment variable before running (1) verifydb, (2) iimerge, or (3) csreport.

Published: 2008-08-05 Last update: 2026-06-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2008-3389 is rated Low Risk (31.1/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.44%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2008-3389

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 0.07% 0.44% +0.38%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.07% +0.02%
3 2023-03-07 0.04%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2008-3389

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.6 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.9 6.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2008-3389

NVD evaluator notes for CVE-2008-3389

Impact: "Exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the "ingres" user. By itself, this vulnerability does not have very serious consequences. However, when combined with the library loading vulnerability, it allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. " (iDefense)

Solution: "Fixes are available for the current release of Ingres 2006 release 2 (9.1.0), for Ingres 2006 release 1 (9.0.4), and for Ingres 2.6 versions on their respective platforms. The security fixes are available and can be quickly applied with little to no anticipated impact to systems. Ingres customers with a current support contract can review the following knowledge base document for information on downloading the available fixes: http://servicedesk.ingres.com/CAisd/pdmweb.ingres?OP=SHOW_DETAIL+PERSID=KD:416012+HTMPL=kt_document_view.htmpl (ingres.com)

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2008-3389

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ingres ingres 2.6 cpe:2.3:a:ingres:ingres:2.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
ingres ingres 2006 cpe:2.3:a:ingres:ingres:2006:9.0.4:*:*:*:*:*:*
ingres ingres 2006 cpe:2.3:a:ingres:ingres:2006:9.1.0:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2008-3389

cvelogic Threat Intelligence