What is CVE-2008-0888?

CVE-2008-0888 is a vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2008-03-17.

Is CVE-2008-0888 known to be exploited?

3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

Buffer overflow in Apple Mac OS X

CVE-2008-0888

The NEEDBITS macro in the inflate_dynamic function in inflate.c for unzip can be invoked using invalid buffers, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via unknown vectors that trigger a free of uninitialized or previously-freed data.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2008-03-17 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 9.3 (High). Vector: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.063 (93.4th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 93rd percentile — 93.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.063 · newest: 0.063 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Apple Mac OS X
Info-Zip Unzip — versions 0
Unzip Project
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 6.06, 6.10, 7.04
Debian Linux — versions 4.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-119 — Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

secunia.com/advisories/29415 (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/489967/100/0/threaded (mailing-list, Broken Link)
secunia.com/advisories/29427 (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2008/1744 (vdb-entry, Broken Link, Vendor Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/29440 (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1522 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/29432 (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
issues.rpath.com/browse/RPL-2317 (Broken Link)
wiki.rpath.com/Advisories:rPSA-2008-0116 (Broken Link)
www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2008-0009.html (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2008-0888?: CVE-2008-0888 is a vulnerability in Apple Mac OS X, classified under Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer. Published 2008-03-17.
Is CVE-2008-0888 known to be exploited?: 3 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.