Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2009-5080

medium Nessus Plugin ID 217165

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- 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. (CVE-2009-5080)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2009-5080

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2009-5080

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 217165

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2009_5080.nasl

Version: 1.3

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 3/3/2025

Updated: 9/4/2025

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Low

Score: 3.6

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Low

Base Score: 3.3

Temporal Score: 2.4

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2009-5080

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.8

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:5, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:groff, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:groff-gxditview, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:4, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:groff-perl, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:groff

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/14/2009

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2009-5080