CVE-2008-5394

Exp

/bin/login in shadow 4.0.18.1 in Debian GNU/Linux, and probably other Linux distributions, allows local users in the utmp group to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a temporary file referenced in a line (aka ut_line) field in a utmp entry.

Published: 2008-12-09 Last update: 2026-04-23 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2008-5394 is rated Exploit Available (51.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.08%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2008-5394

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
7313 exploit_db edb 2008-12-01 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2008-5394

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 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.08% +0.04%
2 2023-03-07 3.22% 0.04% -3.18%
3 2022-02-04 — 3.22% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2008-5394

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C 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:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2008-5394

OS Trackers for CVE-2008-5394

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2008-5394 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (shadow), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2008-5394
gentoo high CVE-2008-5394: 1 GLSA(s) (200903-24), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/shadow); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2008-5394
redhat — — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2008-5394
ubuntu medium CVE-2008-5394 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (shadow), 5 status rows across 5 suites (dapper, gutsy, hardy, intrepid, upstream): released 5. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2008-5394

Vendor comments (NVD) for CVE-2008-5394

  • Red Hat (2008-12-18T00:00:00)

    Not vulnerable. This issue did not affect the versions of the util-linux packages (providing /bin/login), as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, 3, 4 or 5.

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2008-5394

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
debian shadow 4.0.18.1 cpe:2.3:a:debian:shadow:4.0.18.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2008-5394

cvelogic Threat Intelligence