# CVE-2009-4228: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can crash the Xfig application by tricking users into opening a malformed .fig file with a long string.

- **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:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 8 Dec 2009
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2009-4228, GHSA-gvr2-hrmm-6ff5

## What is CVE-2009-4228?

CVE-2009-4228 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 8 Dec 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

Stack consumption vulnerability in u_bound.c in Xfig 3.2.5b and earlier allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) via a long string in a malformed .fig file that uses the 1.3 file format, possibly related to the readfp_fig function in f_read.c.

Weakness: CWE-399

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2009-4228?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Xfig Xfig.

## How do I fix CVE-2009-4228?

No fix has been published for CVE-2009-4228 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2009-4228 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-4228 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in n/a

- [CVE-2010-4262](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-4262/): Memory corruption in n/a (medium 6.8)
- [CVE-2009-4227](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4227/): Memory corruption in n/a (medium 6.8)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2009-4228 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2009-4228 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 8 Dec 2009. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2009-4228 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-2009-4228/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4228/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-4228
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2009-4228
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2009-4228

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2009-4228/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.