CVE-2009-5020
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 · uneditedOpen redirect vulnerability in awredir.pl in AWStats before 6.95 allows remote attackers to redirect users to arbitrary web sites and conduct phishing attacks via unspecified vectors.
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 confidenceOpen redirect vulnerability in awredir.pl component of AWStats versions prior to 6.95. The script fails to properly validate redirect targets, allowing attackers to craft malicious URLs that redirect users to arbitrary external websites for phishing purposes.
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<= 6.9= 1.0= 2.1.= 2.2.3= 2.2.4= 3.0= 3.1= 3.2= 4.0= 4.1= 5.0= 5.1CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/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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Locate the awredir.pl scriptSearch the web server document root for the awredir.pl file, typically found in /cgi-bin/ or the AWStats cgi-bin directoryAffected if The awredir.pl script exists and is web-accessible, exposing the vulnerable redirect functionality
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Identify the installed AWStats versionCheck the version string in awstats.pl, or in a VERSION file, or by running: perl awstats.pl -versionAffected if The version is 6.9 or lower, or matches any of these: 1.0, 2.1, 2.2.3, 2.2.4, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 4.0, 4.1, 5.0, or 5.1
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Verify awredir.pl redirect parameter handlingExamine the awredir.pl source code and look for the redirect target parameter (typically 'url' or 'redirect') to see if it performs any validation on the target URL before performing the redirectAffected if The script performs no validation or insufficient validation on the redirect target parameter, allowing arbitrary URLs to be passed
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Test the redirect functionalityIf awredir.pl is accessible, send a crafted request such as awredir.pl?url=http://malicious.example.com to observe if the application redirects to the arbitrary domainAffected if The application redirects to the attacker-controlled domain instead of rejecting or restricting to local/expected domains
A user is affected if the awredir.pl script is present and the installed AWStats version is 6.9 or lower, or one of the specific versions listed, and the redirect parameter lacks proper URL validation.
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 AWStats to version 6.95 or later. If upgrading is not immediately possible, implement strict URL validation in awredir.pl to ensure redirect targets are within expected domains or relative paths.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,744.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2009-5020 — 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-2009-5020 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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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.
- 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