CVE-2008-5424

Exp

The MimeOleClearDirtyTree function in InetComm.dll in Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 does not properly handle (1) multipart/mixed e-mail messages with many MIME parts and possibly (2) e-mail messages with many "Content-type: message/rfc822;" headers, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via a large e-mail message, a related issue to CVE-2006-1173.

Published: 2008-12-11 Last update: 2026-04-23 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2008-5424 is rated High Exploit Risk (67.9/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 28.81%, 96th percentile). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). EPSS rose +2.00% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. 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-2008-5424

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2008-5424

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 2025-03-30 26.81% 28.81% +2.00%
2 2025-03-29 28.81% 26.81% -2.00%
3 2025-03-17 28.81%

Full EPSS history (14 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2008-5424

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
4.3 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/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:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
8.6 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2008-5424

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2008-5424

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
microsoft outlook_express 6.00.2900.5512 cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:outlook_express:6.00.2900.5512:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2008-5424

cvelogic Threat Intelligence