CVE-2009-4144
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 · uneditedNetworkManager (NM) 0.7.2 does not ensure that the configured Certification Authority (CA) certificate file for a (1) WPA Enterprise or (2) 802.1x network remains present upon a connection attempt, which might allow remote attackers to obtain sensitive information or cause a denial of service (connectivity disruption) by spoofing the identity of a wireless network.
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 confidenceNetworkManager 0.7.2 fails to verify that the configured CA certificate file exists when attempting WPA Enterprise or 802.1x connections. If the certificate file is missing or removed, the system may proceed without proper certificate validation or fail insecurely, potentially allowing an attacker to spoof a wireless network and intercept sensitive authentication credentials.
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= 0.7.2CVSS 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
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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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Check NetworkManager versionRun 'rpm -qa | grep NetworkManager' or 'dpkg -l network-manager' or 'nmcli --version' to determine if version 0.7.2 is installedAffected if NetworkManager version 0.7.2 is installed
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Identify wireless Enterprise connectionsRun 'nmcli connection show' to list all network connections, then inspect each wireless connection with 'nmcli connection show <connection-name>' and look for 802.1x or WPA-EAP configuration fieldsAffected if Any wireless connection is configured with WPA Enterprise or 802.1X authentication (look for fields like '802-1x.ca-cert', '802-1x.authentication-flags', or similar EAP settings)
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Verify CA certificate file existsFor each Enterprise connection identified, retrieve the CA certificate path from the configuration (typically the '802-1x.ca-cert' property via 'nmcli -g 802-1x.ca-cert connection show <name>'), then check if that file physically exists with 'ls -la <certificate-path>'Affected if The configured CA certificate file path is missing, empty, or the file does not exist on the filesystem
A user is affected if they have NetworkManager 0.7.2 with a configured WPA Enterprise or 802.1X wireless connection where the referenced CA certificate file is absent or missing.
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 the CA certificate file is present and validated before allowing wireless network connections; reject connections securely if the CA certificate is missing rather than proceeding insecurely or failing silently.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-4144 — 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-2009-4144 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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