CVE-2009-2191 Vulnerability Analysis & Exploit Details

CVE-2009-2191
Vulnerability Scoring

7.5
/10
Very High Risk

Due to its potential exploitability, CVE-2009-2191 presents a serious risk to affected systems.

Attack Complexity Details

  • Attack Complexity: Low
    Exploits can be performed without significant complexity.
  • Attack Vector: Network
    Vulnerability is exploitable over a network without physical access.
  • Privileges Required: None
    No authentication is required for exploitation.
  • Scope:
    Impact is confined to the initially vulnerable component.
  • User Interaction: None
    No user interaction is necessary for exploitation.

CVE-2009-2191 Details

Status: Modified

Last updated: 🕐 21 Nov 2024, 01:04 UTC
Originally published on: 🕟 06 Aug 2009, 16:30 UTC

Time between publication and last update: 5585 days

CVSS Release: version 2

CVE-2009-2191 Vulnerability Summary

CVE-2009-2191: Format string vulnerability in Login Window in Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5 before 10.5.8 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) via format string specifiers in an application name.

Assessing the Risk of CVE-2009-2191

Access Complexity Graph

The exploitability of CVE-2009-2191 depends on two key factors: attack complexity (the level of effort required to execute an exploit) and privileges required (the access level an attacker needs).

Exploitability Analysis for CVE-2009-2191

The vulnerability CVE-2009-2191 is highly exploitable since it requires low complexity and no authentication.

Understanding AC and PR

A lower complexity and fewer privilege requirements make exploitation easier. Security teams should evaluate these aspects to determine the urgency of mitigation strategies, such as patch management and access control policies.

Attack Complexity (AC) measures the difficulty in executing an exploit. A high AC means that specific conditions must be met, making an attack more challenging, while a low AC means the vulnerability can be exploited with minimal effort.

Privileges Required (PR) determine the level of system access necessary for an attack. Vulnerabilities requiring no privileges are more accessible to attackers, whereas high privilege requirements limit exploitation to authorized users with elevated access.

CVSS Score Breakdown Chart

Above is the CVSS Sub-score Breakdown for CVE-2009-2191, illustrating how Base, Impact, and Exploitability factors combine to form the overall severity rating. A higher sub-score typically indicates a more severe or easier-to-exploit vulnerability.

CIA Impact Analysis

Below is the Impact Analysis for CVE-2009-2191, showing how Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability might be affected if the vulnerability is exploited. Higher values usually signal greater potential damage.

  • Confidentiality: None
    CVE-2009-2191 does not compromise confidentiality.
  • Integrity: None
    CVE-2009-2191 does not impact data integrity.
  • Availability: None
    CVE-2009-2191 does not affect system availability.

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

The EPSS score estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the near future.

EPSS Score: 6.745% (probability of exploit)

EPSS Percentile: 93.93% (lower percentile = lower relative risk)
This vulnerability is less risky than approximately 6.069999999999993% of others.

CVE-2009-2191 References

External References

CWE Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE-134

CAPEC Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification

  • Format String Injection CAPEC-135 An adversary includes formatting characters in a string input field on the target application. Most applications assume that users will provide static text and may respond unpredictably to the presence of formatting character. For example, in certain functions of the C programming languages such as printf, the formatting character %s will print the contents of a memory location expecting this location to identify a string and the formatting character %n prints the number of DWORD written in the memory. An adversary can use this to read or write to memory locations or files, or simply to manipulate the value of the resulting text in unexpected ways. Reading or writing memory may result in program crashes and writing memory could result in the execution of arbitrary code if the adversary can write to the program stack.
  • String Format Overflow in syslog() CAPEC-67 This attack targets applications and software that uses the syslog() function insecurely. If an application does not explicitely use a format string parameter in a call to syslog(), user input can be placed in the format string parameter leading to a format string injection attack. Adversaries can then inject malicious format string commands into the function call leading to a buffer overflow. There are many reported software vulnerabilities with the root cause being a misuse of the syslog() function.

Vulnerable Configurations

  • cpe:2.3:a:apple:mac_os_x:10.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:a:apple:mac_os_x:10.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.5.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:10.5.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.5:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  • cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
    cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x_server:10.5.7:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

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