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SafariWeb browser · Apple

CVE-2009-1690

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-06-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 4.0_beta or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
Use-after-free vulnerability in WebKit, as used in Apple Safari before 4.0, iPhone OS 1.0 through 2.2.1, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 2.2.1, Google Chrome 1.0.154.53, and possibly other products, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption and application crash) by setting an unspecified property of an HTML tag that causes child elements to be freed and later accessed when an HTML error occurs, related to "recursion in certain DOM event handlers."

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-399

A legacy NVD category grouping weaknesses in how resources — memory, file handles, connections — are allocated, used, and released. It gathers leaks, exhaustion, and lifecycle bugs under one label rather than naming a single flaw. The fix depends on the specific resource issue, generally pairing acquisition with release and bounding what any request can consume.

General guidance for the resource management errors class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
SafariWeb browser
Affected:<= 4.0_beta= 0.8= 0.9= 1.0= 1.0.3= 1.1= 1.2= 1.3= 1.3.1= 1.3.2= 2.0= 2.0.2
ChromeWeb browser
Affected:= 1.0.154.53
Iphone OsOperating system
Affected:= 1.0= 1.0.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.1= 1.1.0= 1.1.1= 1.1.2= 1.1.3= 1.1.4= 1.1.5= 2.0

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
Network
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 4.0_beta
Vendor patch lists.apple.com →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Safari 4.0; iPhone OS 2.2.2; Chrome 1.0.154.55

  1. For Safari users: Upgrade to Safari 4.0 or later via Apple Software Update or download from apple.com/safari
  2. For iPhone OS users: Upgrade to iPhone OS 2.2.2 or later through iTunes software update
  3. For iPod touch users: Upgrade to iPhone OS 2.2.2 for iPod touch or later
  4. For Google Chrome users: Upgrade to Chrome version 1.0.154.55 or later
Caveat Safari 4.0 introduced significant UI changes and some legacy extension incompatibility; iOS 2.2.2 is an older firmware with limited device support

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2009-1690 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
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