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CVE-2009-5044

15
FAUCET Score

CVE-2009-5044 describes a local symlink attack vulnerability in GNU troff (groff) versions prior to 1.21, specifically within the contrib/pdfmark/pdfroff.sh script, affecting products like Apple macOS and GNU groff. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to overwrite arbitrary files by manipulating temporary pdf#####.tmp files. With a CVSS score of 3.3 (AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P), it indicates low impact on integrity and availability, requiring medium access complexity and local access. There is no evidence of active exploitation, publicly available exploit code (Metasploit, Nuclei, ExploitDB), or significant community discussion or media coverage, suggesting a low current threat level.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
<= 10.10.4CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:apple:mac_os_x:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
<= 1.20.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
1.10CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.10:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
1.11CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
1.11aCPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:a:gnu:groff:1.11a:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 2.0

3.3LOW

AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
PARTIAL
Availability Impact
PARTIAL
Access Vector
LOCAL
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.4
Impact Score
4.9
CvssVersion
2.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.37%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
30.0%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-25
Model: v2026.06.15
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0037 is in the 67th percentile among its peer group of 747 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.2 GitHub mentions.

Media Mentions

No media coverage found for this CVE.

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 InfoSec Media, 0.0 Vendor Blog, and 0.0 Security Researcher mentions.

Remediation

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2009-5044Low

groff: insecure temporary file handling in pdfroff

Jul 24, 2009

References

ftp.gnu.org / gnu/groff/groff-1.20.1-1.21.diff.gz
Patch
bugs.debian.org / cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi
cvsweb.openwall.com / cgi/cvsweb.cgi/Owl/packages/groff/groff-1.20.1-owl-tmp.diff
Patch
cvsweb.openwall.com / cgi/cvsweb.cgi/Owl/packages/groff/groff-1.20.1-owl-tmp.diff.diff
lists.apple.com / archives/security-announce/2015/Aug/msg00001.html
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/08/09/1
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/08/10/2
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/08/14/4
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/08/14/5
secunia.com / advisories/44999
Vendor Advisory
support.apple.com / kb/HT205031
mandriva.com / security/advisories
mandriva.com / security/advisories
securityfocus.com / bid/36381