# CVE-2009-0798: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service in acpid by opening many UNIX sockets, triggering an infinite loop and CPU exhaustion.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 24 Apr 2009
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2009-0798, DSA-1786-1, GHSA-6hf5-95q4-x9mh, RHSA-2009:0474

## What is CVE-2009-0798?

CVE-2009-0798 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Apr 2009. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

ACPI Event Daemon (acpid) before 1.0.10 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption and connectivity loss) by opening a large number of UNIX sockets without closing them, which triggers an infinite loop.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2009-0798?

It affects 1 product.


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:2.1::as | All versions | 0:1.0.1-3 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:2.1::aw | All versions | 0:1.0.1-3 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::as | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::as | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::desktop | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::desktop | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::es | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::es | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::ws | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:3::ws | All versions | 0:1.0.2-4 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::as | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::desktop | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::es | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:4::ws | All versions | 0:1.0.3-2.el4_7.1 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client | All versions | 0:1.0.4-7.el5_3.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::client | All versions | 0:1.0.4-7.el5_3.1 |
| `acpid` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server | All versions | 0:1.0.4-7.el5_3.1 |
| `acpid-debuginfo` | Red Hat:enterprise_linux:5::server | All versions | 0:1.0.4-7.el5_3.1 |

Products: Tim Hockin Acpid.

## How do I fix CVE-2009-0798?

Upgrade to a fixed version.

## Is CVE-2009-0798 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-0798 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2009-4033](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4033/): Information disclosure in n/a (medium 6.9)
- [CVE-2009-4235](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4235/): Information disclosure in n/a (medium 6.9)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2009-0798 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2009-0798 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 24 Apr 2009. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-0798 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-0798/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-0798/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-0798
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-0798
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2009-0798

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-0798/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.