What is CVE-2008-4097?

CVE-2008-4097 is a vulnerability in Oracle MySQL, classified under CWE-264. Published 2008-09-18.

Is CVE-2008-4097 known to be exploited?

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

Vulnerability in Oracle MySQL

CVE-2008-4097

MySQL 5.0.51a allows local users to bypass certain privilege checks by calling CREATE TABLE on a MyISAM table with modified (1) DATA DIRECTORY or (2) INDEX DIRECTORY arguments that are associated with symlinks within pathnames for subdirectories of the MySQL home data directory, which are followed when tables are created in the future. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2008-2079.

Published 2008-09-18 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 4.6 (Medium). Vector: AV:N/AC:H/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:P. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.019 (78.4th percentile), scored 2026-10-02.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 78th percentile — 78.4% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.019 · newest: 0.019 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Oracle MySQL — versions 5.0.51a

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-264

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

www.mandriva.com/security/advisories (vendor-advisory, Broken Link)
www.ubuntu.com/usn/USN-671-1 (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
secunia.com/advisories/32769 (Not Applicable, Broken Link, third-party-advisory)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2008/09/09/20 (mailing-list, Mailing List)
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/45648 (VDB Entry, vdb-entry)
www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2008/09/16/3 (mailing-list, Mailing List)
secunia.com/advisories/32759 (Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)
lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-11/msg00001.html (vendor-advisory, Third Party Advisory)
bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi (Third Party Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2008-4097?: CVE-2008-4097 is a vulnerability in Oracle MySQL, classified under CWE-264. Published 2008-09-18.
Is CVE-2008-4097 known to be exploited?: 5 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.