CVE-2009-0746 Denial of service in n/a

What is CVE-2009-0746?

CVE-2009-0746 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 2009. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

The make_indexed_dir function in fs/ext4/namei.c in the Linux kernel 2.6.27 before 2.6.27.19 and 2.6.28 before 2.6.28.7 does not validate a certain rec_len field, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (OOPS) by attempting to mount a crafted ext4 filesystem.

Weakness: CWE-20

Which versions are affected by CVE-2009-0746?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2009-0746?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2009-0746 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2009-0746 exists.

Public exploit code: 1 Exploit-DB entry.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as GHSA-gprc-5h5v-mh5j.