dbcve.org
SafariWeb browser · Apple

CVE-2009-1701

HIGH · 9.3 CVSS v2.0 Published 2009-06-10
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.2.2 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 the JavaScript DOM implementation in WebKit in Apple Safari before 4.0, iPhone OS 1.0 through 2.2.1, and iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 2.2.1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (application crash) by destroying a document.body element that has an unspecified XML container with elements that support the dir attribute.

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:<= 3.2.2= 2.0= 2.0.0= 2.0.1= 2.0.2= 2.0.3= 2.0.4= 3.0= 3.0.0= 3.0.0b= 3.0.1= 3.0.1b
Iphone OsOperating system
Affected:= 1.0.0= 1.0.1= 1.0.2= 1.1.0= 1.1.1= 1.1.2= 1.1.3= 1.1.4= 1.1.5= 2.0= 2.0.0= 2.0.1
Ipod TouchHardware / appliance
Affected:all versions

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 3.2.2
Vendor patch lists.apple.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

Safari 4.0 or later; iOS 3.0 or later for iPhone/iPod touch

  1. Upgrade Safari to version 4.0 or later (the June 2009 security update addresses this vulnerability)
  2. For iPhone OS devices, upgrade to iOS 3.0 or later to resolve the vulnerability in iPhone OS 1.0 through 2.2.1
  3. For iPod touch devices, upgrade to iOS 3.0 or later to resolve the vulnerability in all prior versions
  4. After upgrading, verify the browser version matches or exceeds the fixed release
Caveat These are very old software versions from 2009; upgrading may introduce compatibility issues with older applications or configurations that relied on legacy behavior

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $1,950. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-1701 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2009-1701 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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