CVE-2009-4361
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 · uneditedMultiple buffer overflows in qoslist in IBM AIX 6.1 allow local users to cause a denial of service (application crash) or possibly gain privileges via a long string argument. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
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 confidenceMultiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities exist in the qoslist command in IBM AIX 6.1. The application fails to properly validate string length when processing arguments, allowing local attackers to overflow buffers on the stack or heap. This can cause application crashes (DoS) or potentially execute arbitrary code with elevated 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= 6.1CVSS 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
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/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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Verify AIX version is 6.1Run 'oslevel -r' or 'uname -a' to confirm the installed AIX version matches 6.1Affected if The AIX version is 6.1 (any TL/ML level)
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Locate the qoslist commandRun 'which qoslist' or 'ls -la /usr/bin/qoslist' to check if the qoslist binary exists on the systemAffected if The qoslist command is present on the system
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Check command permissions and ownershipRun 'ls -la /usr/bin/qoslist' and review the file permissions, owner, and groupAffected if The command is executable by non-privileged users or has weak permission settings (e.g., world-executable)
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Identify if qoslist is part of any installed packageRun 'lslpp -l | grep -i qos' or 'rpm -qa | grep -i qos' to determine which software package installed qoslistAffected if The qoslist command is installed as part of an affected AIX 6.1 package
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Assess user access to qoslistCheck which users/groups can execute qoslist using 'aclget /usr/bin/qoslist' or by reviewing /etc/security/property for command restrictionsAffected if Untrusted or unprivileged local users have access to execute qoslist
A system is affected if it runs AIX 6.1 and has the qoslist command installed and accessible to users who could trigger the buffer overflow via specially crafted arguments.
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 dataApply any IBM AIX 6.1 security patches for this vulnerability; if unavailable, restrict execution of the qoslist command to trusted local users only or implement compensating controls such as restricted command access.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $4,224.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-4361 — 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-2009-4361 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
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