CVE-2009-1601

The Ubuntu clamav-milter.init script in clamav-milter before 0.95.1+dfsg-1ubuntu1.2 in Ubuntu 9.04 sets the ownership of the current working directory to the clamav account, which might allow local users to bypass intended access restrictions via read or write operations involving this directory.

Published: 2009-05-11 Last update: 2026-04-23 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2009-1601 is rated Low Risk (35.7/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). 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-2009-1601

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 0.14% 0.32% +0.18%
2 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.14% +0.10%
3 2023-03-07 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-1601

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.8 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.1 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-1601

OS Trackers for CVE-2009-1601

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2009-1601 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (clamav), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-1601
ubuntu medium CVE-2009-1601 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (clamav), 5 status rows across 5 suites (dapper, hardy, intrepid, jaunty, upstream): not-affected 3, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-1601

NVD evaluator notes for CVE-2009-1601

Impact: Per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/clamav/+bug/365823 A clean install of clamav-milter (0.95.1+dfsg-1ubuntu1.1) causes the root directory to become owned by the clamav user. This was witnessed breaking ssh chroot environment. TEST CASE: - purge any existing clamav-milter installation, make sure you don't have any old /etc/init.d/clamav-milter init script around - check root directory's owner (should be root:root) - sudo apt-get install clamav-milter (the last one in Jaunty is 0.95.1+dfsg-1ubuntu1.1) - after installing the package, clamav-milter will start automatically (at least 'init.d/clamav-milter start' will execute) - check the root directory's owner:

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-1601

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ubuntu linux 9.04 cpe:2.3:o:ubuntu:linux:9.04:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-1601

cvelogic Threat Intelligence