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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.4

CVE-2009-4029 json

The (1) dist or (2) distcheck rules in GNU Automake 1.11.1, 1.10.3, and release branches branch-1-4 through branch-1-9, when producing a di…

published 2009-12-20 16 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2009-4000

cvss
4.4
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 41%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

The (1) dist or (2) distcheck rules in GNU Automake 1.11.1, 1.10.3, and release branches branch-1-4 through branch-1-9, when producing a distribution tarball for a package that uses Automake, assign insecure permissions (777) to directories in the build tree, which introduces a race condition that allows local users to modify the contents of package files, introduce Trojan horse programs, or conduct other attacks before the build is complete.

Patch / fix

  • automake Debian 14 1:1.4-p6-13.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4029

  • automake RHEL 5 1.9.6-2.3.el5
  • automake14 RHEL 5 1.4p6-13.el5.1
  • automake15 RHEL 5 1.5-16.el5.2
  • automake16 RHEL 5 1.6.3-8.el5.1
  • automake17 RHEL 5 1.7.9-7.el5.2

red hat advisories RHSA-2010:0321

  • automake openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.4.17-5.7

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10027-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2009-4029 updated cvss 3.7

Automake: Race condition by creation of "distdir" based directory hierarchy

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (v. 5 server) automake 1.9.6-2.3.el5, automake15 1.5-16.el5.2, automake16 1.6.3-8.el5.1, automake17 1.7.9-7.el5.2, automake14 1.4p6-13.el5.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) automake 1.9.6-2.3.el5, automake15 1.5-16.el5.2, automake16 1.6.3-8.el5.1, automake17 1.7.9-7.el5.2, automake14 1.4p6-13.el5.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2010:0321

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.48% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 41% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • lists.gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2009-11/msg00017.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 4.4 AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-362 Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.