What is CVE-2008-3275?

CVE-2008-3275 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2008-08-12.

How severe is CVE-2008-3275?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Buffer overflow in Linux Kernel

CVE-2008-3275

The (1) real_lookup and (2) __lookup_hash functions in fs/namei.c in the vfs implementation in the Linux kernel before 2.6.25.15 do not prevent creation of a child dentry for a deleted (aka S_DEAD) directory, which allows local users to cause a denial of service ("overflow" of the UBIFS orphan area) via a series of attempted file creations within deleted directories.

Vulnerability class: Buffer Overflow

Published 2008-08-12 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (41.2th percentile), scored 2026-10-01.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 41st percentile — 41.2% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Linux Kernel
Canonical Ubuntu Linux — versions 6.06, 7.04, 7.10
Debian Linux — versions 4.0
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop — versions 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server — versions 10

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-120 — Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow)

References

www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1630 (vendor-advisory, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
www.redhat.com/support/errata/RHSA-2008-0885.html (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
usn.ubuntu.com/637-1/ (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
lkml.org/lkml/2008/7/2/83 (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List, Third Party Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/32190 (Broken Link, third-party-advisory)
oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval:org.mitre.oval:def:6551 (signature, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
www.debian.org/security/2008/dsa-1636 (vendor-advisory, Patch, Third Party Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/31614 (Broken Link, third-party-advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/31881 (Broken Link, third-party-advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/32104 (Broken Link, third-party-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2008-3275?: CVE-2008-3275 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux Kernel, classified under Buffer Copy without Checking Size of Input (Classic Buffer Overflow). CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2008-08-12.
How severe is CVE-2008-3275?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.