CVE-2009-0854
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in dash 0.5.4, when used as a login shell, allows local users to execute arbitrary code via a Trojan horse .profile file in the current working directory.
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 · high confidenceThe dash shell 0.5.4 loads and executes a .profile file from the current working directory when invoked as a login shell, rather than restricting file lookup to trusted paths like the user's home directory. This allows a local attacker to place a malicious .profile in an arbitrary directory and trick users into executing dash from that directory, resulting in arbitrary code execution with the victim's privileges.
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= 0.5.4CVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed dash versionRun 'dash --version' or 'dpkg -l dash' (Debian) / 'rpm -qi dash' (RHEL) to obtain the installed version numberAffected if The installed version is exactly 0.5.4
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Verify dash is available as login shellCheck /etc/shells to confirm dash is listed as a valid shell, then check /etc/passwd for any users with dash set as their login shell (field 7)Affected if Dash is configured as a login shell for any user account on the system
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Locate .profile files outside trusted directoriesRun 'find / -name .profile -type f 2>/dev/null' to find all .profile files on the system, then compare their locations against user home directories in /etc/passwdAffected if Any .profile file exists outside of /home/*/ directories or other trusted paths
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Test dash login shell behavior with current directoryCreate a test directory, place a dummy .profile file inside, cd to that directory, and invoke 'dash -login' to observe if dash attempts to source the local .profileAffected if Dash reads and executes .profile from the current working directory instead of ignoring it
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Check shell initialization scripts for dash invocationInspect system shell initialization files (e.g., /etc/profile, /etc/bash.bashrc, ~/.profile, ~/.bashrc) for commands that invoke dash as a login shellAffected if Any script or configuration automatically invokes dash as a login shell, allowing potential cwd-based .profile loading
A system is affected if dash version 0.5.4 is installed and users invoke dash as a login shell from arbitrary directories, enabling untrusted .profile files to be executed.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataEnsure dash only loads .profile from trusted locations (user's $HOME directory) and never from the current working directory. Users should avoid running login shells from untrusted directories.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-0854 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2009-0854 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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