CVE-2009-1894

Exp

Race condition in PulseAudio 0.9.9, 0.9.10, and 0.9.14 allows local users to gain privileges via vectors involving creation of a hard link, related to the application setting LD_BIND_NOW to 1, and then calling execv on the target of the /proc/self/exe symlink.

Published: 2009-07-17 Last update: 2026-04-23 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2009-1894 is rated Exploit Available (52.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.10%). Core evidence: 4 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

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

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2009-1894

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
9207 exploit_db edb 2009-07-20 Exploit-DB ↗
9208 exploit_db edb 2009-07-20 Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2009-1894

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 2025-03-30 0.26% 0.10% -0.16%
2 2025-03-29 0.10% 0.26% +0.16%
3 2025-03-17 0.10%

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-1894

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/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:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-1894

OS Trackers for CVE-2009-1894

vendor priority summary link
debian high CVE-2009-1894 high priority: Debian including 1 source packages (pulseaudio), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-1894
gentoo high CVE-2009-1894: 1 GLSA(s) (200907-13), 1 atom(s) (media-sound/pulseaudio); latest impact high. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2009-1894
redhat high https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-1894
ubuntu high CVE-2009-1894 high priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (pulseaudio), 5 status rows across 5 suites (dapper, hardy, intrepid, jaunty, upstream): released 3, DNE 1, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-1894

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-1894

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
pulseaudio pulseaudio 0.9.9 cpe:2.3:a:pulseaudio:pulseaudio:0.9.9:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
pulseaudio pulseaudio 0.9.10 cpe:2.3:a:pulseaudio:pulseaudio:0.9.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
pulseaudio pulseaudio 0.9.14 cpe:2.3:a:pulseaudio:pulseaudio:0.9.14:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-1894

URL Tags
http://blog.cr0.org/2009/07/old-school-local-root-vulnerability-in.html
http://secunia.com/advisories/35868
http://secunia.com/advisories/35886
http://secunia.com/advisories/35896
http://security.gentoo.org/glsa/glsa-200907-13.xml
http://taviso.decsystem.org/research.html
http://www.akitasecurity.nl/advisory.php?id=AK20090602
http://www.debian.org/security/2009/dsa-1838
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2009:152
http://www.mandriva.com/security/advisories?name=MDVSA-2009:171
http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/505052/100/0/threaded
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/35721 Exploit Patch
http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-804-1
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/pulseaudio-0.9.10-1.el5.2
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=510071 Exploit Patch
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/51804
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