Predictive Vulnerability Intelligence.

Product

  • Product
  • Pricing
  • Documentation

Company

  • About
  • Partnerships
  • Blog
  • Support

Legal

  • Terms
  • Privacy
  • Data Licensing

© 2026 FAUCET Technologies LLC. All rights reserved.

CVE-2008-4989

18
FAUCET Score

CVE-2008-4989 describes a critical vulnerability in GnuTLS versions prior to 2.6.1, specifically within the _gnutls_x509_verify_certificate function. This flaw allows man-in-the-middle attackers to spoof certificates for any Distinguished Name by exploiting the library's improper trust in certificate chains ending with an arbitrary trusted, self-signed certificate. Affecting various distributions like Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE, this vulnerability carries a CVSS score of 5.9 (Medium) due to its high impact on integrity and high attack complexity, despite not requiring user interaction. While no public exploit code or active exploitation has been identified, and it is not on the KEV catalog, the vulnerability has garnered some community discussion and media coverage.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
< 2.6.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:gnutls:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
8CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:8:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
9CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
6.06CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:6.06:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
7.10CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:7.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 3.1

5.9MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Attack Complexity
HIGH
Privileges Required
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
HIGH
Availability Impact
NONE
Exploitability Score
2.2
Impact Score
3.6
CvssVersion
3.1

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
1.88%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
77.3%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0188 is in the 59th percentile among its peer group of 19,956 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (1)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5Fixed in: gnutls-0:1.4.1-3.el5_2.1
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2008-4989Moderate

gnutls: certificate chain verification flaw

Nov 10, 2008

References

article.gmane.org / gmane.comp.encryption.gpg.gnutls.devel/3215
Broken LinkPatch
article.gmane.org / gmane.comp.encryption.gpg.gnutls.devel/3217
Broken Link
lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2008-12/msg00002.html
Mailing List
lists.opensuse.org / opensuse-security-announce/2009-04/msg00010.html
Mailing List
secunia.com / advisories/32619
Broken LinkVendor Advisory
secunia.com / advisories/32681
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/32687
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/32879
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/33501
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/33694
Broken Link
secunia.com / advisories/35423
Broken Link
security.gentoo.org / glsa/glsa-200901-10.xml
Third Party Advisory
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com / vulnerabilities/46482
Third Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
issues.rpath.com / browse/RPL-2886
Broken Link
oval.cisecurity.org / repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A11650
Broken Link
sunsolve.sun.com / search/document.do
Broken Link
usn.ubuntu.com / 678-1
Broken Link
redhat.com / archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-November/msg00222.html
Mailing List
redhat.com / archives/fedora-package-announce/2008-November/msg00293.html
Mailing List
wiki.rpath.com / Advisories:rPSA-2008-0322
Broken Link
debian.org / security/2009/dsa-1719
Mailing List
gnu.org / software/gnutls/security.html
Product
mandriva.com / security/advisories
Broken Link
redhat.com / support/errata/RHSA-2008-0982.html
Broken Link
securityfocus.com / archive/1/498431/100/0/threaded
Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securityfocus.com / bid/32232
Broken LinkPatchThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
securitytracker.com / id
Broken LinkThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
ubuntu.com / usn/usn-678-2
Third Party Advisory
vupen.com / english/advisories/2008/3086
Broken Link
vupen.com / english/advisories/2009/1567
Broken Link