# CVE-2009-1415: Memory corruption in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash applications using GnuTLS by sending malformed DSA keys, causing a denial of service via memory corruption.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.3 (`AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 30 Apr 2009
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-2vg6-3mr6-w5mp

## What is CVE-2009-1415?

CVE-2009-1415 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Gnu Gnutls, published on 30 Apr 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

lib/pk-libgcrypt.c in libgnutls in GnuTLS before 2.6.6 does not properly handle invalid DSA signatures, which allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) and possibly have unspecified other impact via a malformed DSA key that triggers a (1) free of an uninitialized pointer or (2) double free.

Weakness: CWE-824 (Access of Uninitialized Pointer)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2009-1415?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Gnu Gnutls.

## How do I fix CVE-2009-1415?

No fix has been published for CVE-2009-1415 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2009-1415 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2009-1415 exists.

Public exploit code:

- GnuTLS 2.6.x - libgnutls lib/pk-libgcrypt.c Malformed DSA Key Handling Remote Denial of Service (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Gnu Gnutls

- [CVE-2008-1948](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-1948/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2017-5334](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5334/): Use after free in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-5336](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5336/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2017-5337](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-5337/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 9.8)
- [CVE-2008-1949](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-1949/): Null dereference in n/a (critical 9.3)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2009-1415 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2009-1415 is a medium-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Gnu Gnutls, published on 30 Apr 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2009-1415 exists.

Affected product: Gnu Gnutls. 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-2009-1415/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-1415/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-1415
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-1415
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2009-1415

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-1415/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.