CVE-2009-3470
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 · uneditedIBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) 10.00 before 10.00.xC11, 11.10 before 11.10.xC4, and 11.50 before 11.50.xC5 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption, assertion failure, and daemon crash) by sending a long password over a JDBC connection.
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 confidenceIBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) contains a memory corruption vulnerability in its JDBC connection handling. Remote attackers can trigger a denial of service by sending an excessively long password string during JDBC authentication, which causes memory corruption, assertion failures, and daemon crash.
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= 10.0= 10.00.xc1= 10.00.xc2= 10.00.xc3= 10.00.xc4= 10.00.xc5= 10.00.xc6= 10.00.xc8= 10.00.xc9= 10.00.xc10= 11.10= 11.10.xc1CVSS 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
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
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 if IBM Informix IDS is installedCheck for IDS processes (oninit, onpsmx) or look in typical installation directories such as /opt/informix or C:\Informix. Use 'ps -ef | grep informix' on Unix or check Windows services for Informix services.Affected if IBM Informix Dynamic Server is installed and running on the system
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Determine the installed IDS versionRun the 'onstat -' command from the Informix bin directory, or read the version file in $INFORMIXDIR/etc or the installation log. Compare the version number against the affected list.Affected if The installed version is 10.0, 10.00.xc1, 10.00.xc2, 10.00.xc3, 10.00.xc4, 10.00.xc5, 10.00.xc6, 10.00.xc8, 10.00.xc9, 10.00.xc10, 11.10, or 11.10.xc1
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Check if JDBC connectivity is enabledExamine the IDS configuration files (sqlhosts, onconfig) for JDBC-related entries, or check if the JDBC driver (jdbc.jar) is present in the $INFORMIXDIR/lib directory. Verify if JDBC listener ports are configured.Affected if JDBC is enabled and accessible (jdbc.jar present, JDBC ports configured in sqlhosts, or JDBC connection attempts are possible)
The system is affected if it runs any of the vulnerable IDS versions (10.0 through 10.00.xc10, 11.10, or 11.10.xc1) AND has JDBC connectivity enabled, as the memory corruption occurs during JDBC authentication with an excessively long password.
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 dataUpgrade to IBM Informix IDS version 10.00.xC11, 11.10.xC4, 11.50.xC5 or later to receive the patch. If immediate patching is not possible, restrict JDBC access to trusted sources via network controls.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation12.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-3470 — 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-2009-3470 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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