CVE-2009-1046

Published: 23 March 2009

The console selection feature in the Linux kernel 2.6.28 before 2.6.28.4, 2.6.25, and possibly earlier versions, when the UTF-8 console is used, allows physically proximate attackers to cause a denial of service (memory corruption) by selecting a small number of 3-byte UTF-8 characters, which triggers an "off-by-two memory error." NOTE: it is not clear whether this issue crosses privilege boundaries.

From the Ubuntu Security Team

The virtual consoles did not correctly handle certain UTF-8 sequences. A local attacker on the physical console could exploit this to cause a system crash, leading to a denial of service.

Status

References

• https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-751-1
• https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-1046
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian