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Mac Os XOperating system · Apple

CVE-2009-0141

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2009-02-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
XTerm in Apple Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.6, when used with luit, creates tty devices with insecure world-writable permissions, which allows local users to write to the Xterm of another user.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

XTerm when used with luit on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.6 creates tty device files with insecure world-writable permissions (666 instead of 600), allowing any local user to write data to another user's terminal session.

MitigationRestrict tty device permissions to 600 using a systemd-tmpfiles configuration or wrapper script, or upgrade from these deprecated Mac OS X versions which no longer receive security updates.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:= 10.4.11= 10.5.6
Mac Os X ServerOperating system
Affected:= 10.4.11= 10.5.6

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check the Mac OS X version
    Run 'sw_vers' or 'uname -a' to identify the exact OS version
    Affected if The version shown is exactly 10.4.11 or 10.5.6 (client or Server)
  2. Verify xterm and luit are in use
    Check if xterm and luit packages are installed: 'which xterm' and 'which luit', or look for xterm processes running with luit
    Affected if xterm and luit are installed and actively used on the system
  3. Inspect tty device file permissions
    Run 'ls -la /dev/tty*' to list permissions of tty device files
    Affected if Any tty device shows permissions as 666 (rw-rw-rw-) instead of 600 (rw-------)
  4. Check ownership and permissions of pseudo-terminals
    Examine /dev/pts/* entries if present: 'ls -la /dev/pts/'
    Affected if Pseudo-terminal devices have world-writable permissions

A system is affected if it runs Mac OS X 10.4.11 or 10.5.6, uses xterm with luit, AND has tty/pty devices with 666 permissions instead of 600.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict tty device permissions to 600 using a systemd-tmpfiles configuration or wrapper script, or upgrade from these deprecated Mac OS X versions which no longer receive security updates.

Fix this in Mac Os X Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2009-0141 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data