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CVE-2009-1046

23
FAUCET Score

CVE-2009-1046 describes a denial-of-service vulnerability in the Linux kernel versions 2.6.28 before 2.6.28.4, 2.6.25, and potentially earlier, specifically impacting the console selection feature when using a UTF-8 console. A physically proximate attacker can trigger memory corruption by selecting a small number of 3-byte UTF-8 characters, leading to an "off-by-two memory error." The CVSS score of 4.7 indicates a medium severity, with an attack vector requiring local access and medium attack complexity, resulting in a complete denial of service. While not listed on the KEV catalog and with minimal community discussion or media coverage, an exploit for privilege escalation related to this vulnerability has been published on ExploitDB.

Impacted Technologies

VendorProductVersion(s)CPE
2.6.25CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.25:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.28CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.28:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.28.1CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.28.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.28.2CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.28.2:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
2.6.28.3CPE matchmatch criteria
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:2.6.28.3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

CVSS Data

CVSS version used by this source: 2.0

4.7MEDIUM

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

Confidentiality Impact
NONE
Integrity Impact
NONE
Availability Impact
COMPLETE
Access Vector
LOCAL
Access Complexity
MEDIUM
Authentication
NONE
Exploitability Score
3.4
Impact Score
6.9
CvssVersion
2.0

Exploit Intelligence

EPSS Score
0.78%
Probability of exploitation in next 30 days
EPSS Percentile
52.3%
Percentile rank of EPSS score among Peer Group
As of 2026-07-27
Model: v2026.06.15
ExploitDB: EDB-9083 · Jul 9, 2009
This CVE's current EPSS score of 0.0078 is in the 87th percentile among its peer group of 1,595 CVEs.

Social Chatter

The average CVE in this peer group has 0.0 Twitter, 0.0 Reddit, 0.0 Bluesky, 0.0 Mastodon, and 0.1 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

Patch Available

Vendor Patches (1)

redhatpatch availablevia redhat_api
Product: MRG for RHEL-5Fixed in: kernel-rt-0:2.6.24.7-111.el5rt
View patch

Vendor Advisories (1)

redhatCVE-2009-1046Moderate

kernel: utf8 selection memory corruption

Jan 30, 2009

References

lists.openwall.net / linux-kernel/2009/01/30/333
Patch
lists.openwall.net / linux-kernel/2009/02/02/364
Patch
secunia.com / advisories/34917
secunia.com / advisories/34981
secunia.com / advisories/35121
debian.org / security/2009/dsa-1787
debian.org / security/2009/dsa-1800
kernel.org / pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.28.4
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/02/12/10
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/02/12/11
openwall.com / lists/oss-security/2009/02/12/9
redhat.com / support/errata/RHSA-2009-0451.html
securityfocus.com / bid/33672
Patch
ubuntu.com / usn/usn-751-1