CVE-2009-2669
A certain debugging component in IBM AIX 5.3 and 6.1 does not properly handle the (1) _LIB_INIT_DBG and (2) _LIB_INIT_DBG_FILE environment…
- 7.2HighCVSS base score
- 0.72%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 46% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
A certain debugging component in IBM AIX 5.3 and 6.1 does not properly handle the (1) _LIB_INIT_DBG and (2) _LIB_INIT_DBG_FILE environment variables, which allows local users to gain privileges by leveraging a setuid-root program to create an arbitrary root-owned file with world-writable permissions, related to libC.a (aka the XL C++ runtime library) in AIX 5.3 and libc.a in AIX 6.1.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits1
Exploit-DB1 entry
- IBM AIX 5.6/6.1 - '_LIB_INIT_DBG' Arbitrary File Overwrite via Libc Debug (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 9645local, aixpublished 11 Sept 2009Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 15 years later
· 15 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | High7.2 | AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.72% · top 46% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.2.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
References12
- IZ54593 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- IZ56204 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- 36156 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_SECUNIAx_transferred
- http://aix.software.ibm.com/aix/efixes/security/libC_advisory.asc (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- IZ56203 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- IZ54090 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- IZ54091 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- 35934 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- IZ56205 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
- ADV-2009-2151 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_VUPENx_transferred
- 20090804 IBM AIX libC _LIB_INIT_DBG Arbitrary File Creation Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_IDEFENSEx_transferred
- IZ56206 (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_AIXAPARx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2009-2662 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2009-2669)Record last updated .