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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.8

CVE-2009-4227 json

Stack-based buffer overflow in the read_1_3_textobject function in f_readold.c in Xfig 3.2.5b and earlier, and in the read_textobject funct…

published 2009-12-08 16 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2009-4196

cvss
6.8
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
11.5%
EPSS 11.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

Stack-based buffer overflow in the read_1_3_textobject function in f_readold.c in Xfig 3.2.5b and earlier, and in the read_textobject function in read1_3.c in fig2dev in Transfig 3.2.5a and earlier, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a long string in a malformed .fig file that uses the 1.3 file format. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.

Patch / fix

  • xfig Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1:3.2.5.b-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4227

  • xfig openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.2.6-1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2024:10483-1

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-2009-4227 updated cvss 4.3

Transfig: Stack-based buffer overflow by loading malformed .FIG files

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 xfig, transfig Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 xfig, transfig Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 xfig, transfig, xfig-plain, xfig-common
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”

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

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-33388)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

11.50% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-33388 Xfig and Transfig 3.2.5 - '.fig' Remote Buffer Overflow remote, 2009-12-03
  • securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37193 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 6.8 AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-119 Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer

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.