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NetwareApplication · Microfocus

CVE-2009-5153

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-11-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 6.5 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
In Novell NetWare before 6.5 SP8, a stack buffer overflow in processing of CALLIT RPC calls in the NFS Portmapper daemon in PKERNEL.NLM allowed remote unauthenticated attackers to execute code, because a length field was incorrectly trusted.

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 confidence

A stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the NFS Portmapper daemon (PKERNEL.NLM) in Novell NetWare versions prior to 6.5 SP8 allows remote unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code. The vulnerability stems from the CALLIT RPC handler incorrectly trusting a length field from incoming requests, leading to a buffer overflow on the stack when processing malformed RPC calls.

MitigationApply NetWare 6.5 SP8 or later, which contains the fix for the vulnerable length field handling in PKERNEL.NLM. If patching is not feasible, restrict network access to the NFS Portmapper service using firewall rules or network segmentation to prevent unauthorized RPC calls.

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
NetwareApplication
Affected:<= 6.5= 6.5

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
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify NetWare version
    Execute 'version' at the server console prompt or check the System Console screen for the boot banner showing NetWare version number
    Affected if The displayed version is NetWare 6.5 or lower (any version below 6.5 SP8 is affected)
  2. Check installed Service Pack level
    At the server console, type 'spkinfo' or check the SYS:/SYSTEM/READY.TXT file for the Service Pack version installed
    Affected if The Service Pack level is below SP8 (6.5 SP7, SP6, or earlier, or no Service Pack installed)
  3. Verify PKERNEL.NLM module is loaded
    At the server console, type 'modules pkernel' or 'ndstray' to list loaded NLM modules and look for PKERNEL.NLM
    Affected if PKERNEL.NLM is loaded in memory (the vulnerability exists in this module)
  4. Confirm NFS Portmapper service status
    At the server console, type 'nfsportmap' or check SERVER.CFG/SYS:/ETC/RCONAGED for NFS Portmapper startup entries
    Affected if The NFS Portmapper (portmap/rpcbind) service is enabled and listening on RPC ports

The system is affected if it is running NetWare 6.5 with a Service Pack level below SP8, has PKERNEL.NLM loaded, and has the NFS Portmapper service enabled, allowing remote RPC requests to reach the vulnerable CALLIT handler.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 6.5
Interim mitigation

Apply NetWare 6.5 SP8 or later, which contains the fix for the vulnerable length field handling in PKERNEL.NLM. If patching is not feasible, restrict network access to the NFS Portmapper service using firewall rules or network segmentation to prevent unauthorized RPC calls.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

NetWare 6.5 SP8 or later

  1. 1. Identify the current NetWare version by running 'version' at the server console or checking the startup banner
  2. 2. If running NetWare 6.5 without Service Pack 8 or later, obtain NetWare 6.5 SP8 from Novell/attachment downloads
  3. 3. Apply SP8 by copying the patch files to the NetWare server and running the update utility from the server console
  4. 4. Restart the NetWare server after applying the service pack
  5. 5. Verify the version now shows 6.5 SP8 or higher and confirm PKERNEL.NLM is updated
Caveat NetWare 6.5 is long end-of-life; consider modernizing to supported platforms as NetWare has limited vendor support

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

Fix this in Netware Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
17.0 hours of engineering $2,960
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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-2009-5153 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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