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Fencer Vulns
critical 10.0

CVE-2009-2694 in the critical feed json

The msn_slplink_process_msg function in libpurple/protocols/msn/slplink.c in libpurple, as used in Pidgin (formerly Gaim) before 2.5.9 and…

published 2009-08-20 17 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2009-2686

cvss
10.0
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
20.3%
EPSS 20.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 97%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

The msn_slplink_process_msg function in libpurple/protocols/msn/slplink.c in libpurple, as used in Pidgin (formerly Gaim) before 2.5.9 and Adium 1.3.5 and earlier, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) by sending multiple crafted SLP (aka MSNSLP) messages to trigger an overwrite of an arbitrary memory location. NOTE: this issue reportedly exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2009-1376.

Patch / fix

  • pidgin Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 2.5.9-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2694

  • pidgin RHEL 3 1.5.1-4.el3
  • pidgin RHEL 4 2.5.9-1.el4
  • pidgin RHEL 5 PRODUCTIVITY, RHEL 5 2.5.9-1.el5
  • finch RHEL 4 2.5.9-1.el4
  • finch RHEL 5 PRODUCTIVITY, RHEL 5 2.5.9-1.el5
  • libpurple RHEL 4 2.5.9-1.el4
  • libpurple RHEL 5 PRODUCTIVITY, RHEL 5 2.5.9-1.el5
  • pidgin-perl RHEL 4 2.5.9-1.el4

red hat advisories RHSA-2009:1218

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-2009-2694 updated cvss 7.5

pidgin: insufficient input validation in msn_slplink_process_msg()

  • Red Hat Desktop version 3 pidgin 1.5.1-4.el3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 3 pidgin 1.5.1-4.el3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS version 4 finch 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop (v. 5 client) finch 2.5.9-1.el5, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el5, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop version 4 finch 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop Workstation (v. 5 client) pidgin 2.5.9-1.el5
    +5 more products
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 3 pidgin 1.5.1-4.el3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 4 finch 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Optional Productivity Applications (v. 5 server) finch 2.5.9-1.el5, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el5, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el5, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el5 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 3 pidgin 1.5.1-4.el3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 4 finch 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple 2.5.9-1.el4, pidgin-perl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-tcl 2.5.9-1.el4, libpurple-perl 2.5.9-1.el4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2009:1218

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. Published
  2. First public exploit (EDB-9615)

Exploit prediction

20.29% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 97% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-9615 Pidgin MSN 2.5.8 - Remote Code Execution remote, 2009-09-09
  • coresecurity.com http://www.coresecurity.com/content/libpurple-arbitrary-write referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-399 Resource Management Errors

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.