cbcvebase.
CVE-2009-1185
published 2009-04-17

CVE-2009-1185: udev before 1.4.1 does not verify whether a NETLINK message originates from kernel space, which allows local users to gain privileges by sending a NETLINK…

PriorityP356high7.2CVSS 2.0
AVLACLAuNCCICAC
EXPLOIT
EPSS
81.53%
99.6th percentile
udev before 1.4.1 does not verify whether a NETLINK message originates from kernel space, which allows local users to gain privileges by sending a NETLINK message from user space.

Affected

23 ranges
VendorProductVersion rangeFixed in
canonicalubuntu_linux
canonicalubuntu_linux
canonicalubuntu_linux
canonicalubuntu_linux
debiandebian_linux
debiandebian_linux
fedoraprojectfedora
fedoraprojectfedora
juniperctpview< 7.17.1
juniperctpview
juniperctpview
opensuseopensuse
opensuseopensuse
opensuseopensuse
suselinux_enterprise_debuginfo
suselinux_enterprise_debuginfo
suselinux_enterprise_desktop
suselinux_enterprise_desktop
suselinux_enterprise_server
suselinux_enterprise_server
udev_projectudev< 141141
vmwareesxi
vmwarevmware_workstation

Detection & IOCsextracted from sources · hover to see the quote

path/tmp/libno_ex.so.1.0
path/tmp/suid
path/tmp/run
path/etc/udev/rules.d/95-udev-late.rules
path/lib/udev/rules.d/95-udev-late.rules
path/proc/net/netlink
commandREMOVE_CMD=/tmp/run
commandLD_PRELOAD=/tmp/libno_ex.so.1.0
  • Detect userspace processes opening AF_NETLINK / NETLINK_KOBJECT_UEVENT (protocol 15) sockets and sending NETLINK messages — legitimate uevent messages should only originate from PID 0 (kernel). Any non-zero nl_pid sending to the udevd netlink socket is suspicious.
  • The exploit sets nl_pid to udevd_PID - 1 (the udevd netlink socket PID found in /proc/net/netlink). Monitor for processes reading /proc/net/netlink and correlating with udevd PID as a pre-exploitation reconnaissance step.
  • Watch for creation of suspicious shared libraries or executables under /tmp (e.g. libno_ex.so.1.0, suid) combined with LD_PRELOAD injection via a crafted NETLINK uevent message.
  • Netlink message crafted with ACTION=remove, SUBSYSTEM=block, and a REMOVE_CMD or LD_PRELOAD field is a strong indicator of CVE-2009-1185 exploitation. These fields do not appear in legitimate kernel-generated uevents.
  • For shell-session detection, look for the shell one-liner iterating /proc/net/netlink and ps output to locate the udevd netlink PID, which is a reliable pre-exploitation fingerprint.
  • ·udev packages shipped in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 are NOT affected because they do not use netlink sockets for communication. udev is not shipped in RHEL 2.1 and 3 at all — do not apply these detections to those platforms.
  • ·VMware ESXi (any version), ESX 3.x/2.x, and all hosted products (Workstation, Player, ACE, Server, Fusion) are NOT affected. Only ESX 4.0 Service Console is affected and was patched via ESX400-200906411-SG.

CVSS provenance

nvdv2.07.2HIGHAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
vendor_redhat7.2HIGH
vendor_ubuntu7.2HIGH
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