CVE-2009-1142

An issue was discovered in open-vm-tools 2009.03.18-154848. Local users can gain privileges via a symlink attack on /tmp files if vmware-user-suid-wrapper is setuid root and the ChmodChownDirectory function is enabled.

Published: 2022-11-23 Last update: 2025-04-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2009-1142 is rated Low Risk (33.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.27%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2009-1142

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.05% 0.27% +0.22%
2 2026-05-19 0.05% 0.05% -0.01%
3 2026-01-05 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (9 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-1142

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 0.8 5.9 [email protected]
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 0.8 5.9 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-1142

OS Trackers for CVE-2009-1142

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2009-1142 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-1142
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-1142
ubuntu medium CVE-2009-1142 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (open-vm-tools), 7 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, kinetic, trusty, upstream, xenial): not-affected 6, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-1142

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-1142

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
vmware open_vm_tools 2009.03.18-154848 cpe:2.3:a:vmware:open_vm_tools:2009.03.18-154848:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-1142

URL Tags
https://bugs.gentoo.org/264577 Issue Tracking Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools/releases/tag/2009.03.18-154848 Release Notes Third Party Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence