CVE-2009-5080

The (1) contrib/eqn2graph/eqn2graph.sh, (2) contrib/grap2graph/grap2graph.sh, and (3) contrib/pic2graph/pic2graph.sh scripts in GNU troff (aka groff) 1.21 and earlier do not properly handle certain failed attempts to create temporary directories, which might allow local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a file in a temporary directory, a different vulnerability than CVE-2004-1296.

Published: 2011-06-30 Last update: 2026-04-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2009-5080 is rated Low Risk (18.8/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.06%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.

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-2009-5080

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 2025-03-17 0.04% 0.06% +0.02%
2 2023-03-07 1.03% 0.04% -0.99%
3 2022-02-04 1.03%

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2009-5080

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.3 2.0 LOW
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:N)
No confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:P)
Partial availability impact.
3.4 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2009-5080

OS Trackers for CVE-2009-5080

vendor priority summary link
debian low CVE-2009-5080 low priority: Debian including 1 source packages (groff), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-5080
gentoo low CVE-2009-5080: 1 GLSA(s) (201310-14), 1 atom(s) (sys-apps/groff); latest impact low. https://bugs.gentoo.org/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=CVE-2009-5080
redhat low https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-5080
suse low CVE-2009-5080 severity low: SUSE including 28 source package names (groff-1.22.2-5.287, groff-1.22.2-5.429, …), 72 product×package rows across 30 product lines (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1, … (30 product lines)): Fixed 72. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2009-5080/
ubuntu low CVE-2009-5080 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (groff), 34 status rows across 34 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hardy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lucid, lunar, mantic, maverick, natty, noble, oneiric, oracular, plucky, precise, quantal, questing, raring, saucy, trusty, upstream, utopic, vivid, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): ignored 21, not-affected 9, needed 3, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-5080

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2009-5080

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
gnu groff <= 1.21 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.10 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.11 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.11a cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.11a:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.14 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.14:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.15 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.15:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.16 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.16:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.16.1 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.16.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.17.1 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.17.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.17.2 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.17.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.18.1 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.18.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.19 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.19:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.19.1 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.19.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.19.2 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.19.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.20 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.20:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
gnu groff 1.20.1 cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.20.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2009-5080

cvelogic Threat Intelligence