CVE-2008-2936
Postfix before 2.3.15, 2.4 before 2.4.8, 2.5 before 2.5.4, and 2.6 before 2.6-20080814, when the operating system supports hard links to…
- 6.2MediumCVSS base score
- 1.0%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 36% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
Postfix before 2.3.15, 2.4 before 2.4.8, 2.5 before 2.5.4, and 2.6 before 2.6-20080814, when the operating system supports hard links to symlinks, allows local users to append e-mail messages to a file to which a root-owned symlink points, by creating a hard link to this symlink and then sending a message. NOTE: this can be leveraged to gain privileges if there is a symlink to an init script.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits2
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Postfix 2.6-20080814 - 'symlink' Local Privilege Escalation (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 6337local, linuxpublished 31 Aug 2008Verified
References tagged exploit1 reference
- 6337 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 49 days later
· 49 days later
Published
- 16 years later
· 16 years later
Record updated
- 2 years later
· 2 years later
EPSS rose above 1%
0.99% → 1.0%
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | Medium6.2 | AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 1.0% · top 36% of all CVEs (9 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.2.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
29
- FEDORA-2008-8595 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORAx_transferred
- 32231 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- 31469 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- DSA-1629 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_DEBIANx_transferred
- 31530 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- FEDORA-2008-8593 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORAx_transferred
- https://issues.rpath.com/browse/RPL-2689 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- 1020700 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_SECTRACKx_transferred
- 20080821 rPSA-2008-0259-1 postfix (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
- VU#938323 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_CERT-VNx_transferred
- [postfix-announce] 20080814 Postfix local privilege escalation via hardlinked symlinks (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTx_transferred
- 4160 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SREASONx_transferred
- 30691 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- http://wiki.rpath.com/Advisories:rPSA-2008-0259 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- SUSE-SA:2008:040 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_SUSEx_transferred
- 31474 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- 20080831 PoCfix (PoC for Postfix local root vuln - CVE-2008-2936) (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
- postfix-symlink-code-execution(44460) (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_XFx_transferred
- 6337 (opens in a new tab)exploitx_refsource_EXPLOIT-DBx_transferred
- RHSA-2008:0839 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHATx_transferred
- 31500 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:10033 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entrysignaturex_refsource_OVALx_transferred
- 31477 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- 31485 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- USN-636-1 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_UBUNTUx_transferred
- MDVSA-2008:171 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_MANDRIVAx_transferred
- 20080814 Postfix local privilege escalation via hardlinked symlinks (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
- ADV-2008-2385 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_VUPENx_transferred
- GLSA-200808-12 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_GENTOOx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2008-2929 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2008-2936)Record last updated .