CVE-2009-4488

CRITICALNVD 9.89.8
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to NVD's CVSS score.

Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory published 2022-05-02. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, NVD CVSS v3
Trending — 3 sources updated this weekWeaponized
9.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan mitigationRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • Public exploit code is available (Exploit-DB, marked verified by Exploit-DB)
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 13%CVSS: 9.8Exploit: Exploit-DB (verified)Exposed services: Not assessed

No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2010 — if the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names; if not, isolate the affected system (restrict network access to it, for example with a firewall, or keep it off the internet) or retire the product.

Varnish 2.0.6 writes data to a log file without sanitizing non-printable characters, which might allow remote attackers to modify a window's title, or possibly execute arbitrary commands or overwrite files, via an HTTP request containing an escape sequence for a terminal emulator. NOTE: the vendor disputes the significance of this report, stating that "This is not a security problem in Varnish or any other piece of software which writes a logfile. The real problem is the mistaken belief that you can cat(1) a random logfile to your terminal safely.

CVSS v3
9.8
EG Score
9.8CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
85
EG Risk 85/100

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity98% × 45%
The EG Score, 9.8 of 10.
Exploitation65% × 40%
EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 2 (Weaponized): a constant, not a probability.
Automatability100% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: yes (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2010. If the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high; if it no longer does, isolate the affected system (restrict network access to it, for example with a firewall, or keep it off the internet) or retire the product.
EPSS PROB
13%
EPSS %ILE
96th
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Attend at high (mission-essential systems).

No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2010. If the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high; if it no longer does, isolate the affected system (restrict network access to it, for example with a firewall, or keep it off the internet) or retire the product.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)3 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; 60 days if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable yes (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

January 13, 2010

Last Modified

April 23, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Oct 8, 2026
No fix on record since 2010.
Web page
http://www.ush.it/team/ush/hack_httpd_escape/adv.txt
Web page

CVE-2009-4488 - PSIRT.COM

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/37713
Web page

SecurityFocus

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/508830/100/0/threaded

Affected Packages

(3 across 3 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
varnish6.5.1-1 ... 7.7.3-3 (30 versions)
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
varnish7.1.1-1.1 ... 7.7.3-3 (20 versions)
  • every version on: no fix on record
—
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
varnish7.7.0-3 ... 7.7.3-3 (8 versions)
  • every version on: no fix on record
—

Weakness Classification(2)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 14× in last 7d / 25× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 87 of 137 refreshes on record for this CVE.

A repeat, a row identical to one the same pipeline wrote less than 10 seconds earlier, is not a separate refresh and is not counted. 13 repeat rows among the latest 100 are merged into the row they repeat. The 50 oldest rows on record are not shown and were not checked, so the counts can still include repeats.

  1. 2026-10-15 05:30 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-15 05:30 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-xm68-4v8h-h9rf · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  3. 2026-10-14 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  4. 2026-10-14 01:10 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-14 01:10 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-xm68-4v8h-h9rf · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  6. 2026-10-13 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  7. 2026-10-12 21:18 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-10-12 21:17 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-xm68-4v8h-h9rf · GitHub CVSS 9.8
  9. 2026-10-12 16:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  10. 2026-10-12 01:51 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-11 13:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  12. 2026-10-10 19:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  13. 2026-10-09 20:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  14. 2026-10-08 16:33 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  15. 2026-10-07 23:38 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  16. 2026-10-06 15:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  17. 2026-10-05 17:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  18. 2026-10-03 19:51 UTCOSV refresh
  19. 2026-10-03 14:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  20. 2026-09-30 14:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  21. 2026-09-29 08:01 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-09-27 13:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  23. 2026-09-26 15:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  24. 2026-09-24 13:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  25. 2026-09-16 13:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
Show 62 more
  1. 2026-09-15 03:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  2. 2026-09-14 09:49 UTCOSV refresh
  3. 2026-09-12 14:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  4. 2026-09-10 09:24 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  5. 2026-09-06 13:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  6. 2026-09-05 15:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  7. 2026-09-04 13:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  8. 2026-08-28 21:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 96th percentile
  9. 2026-08-26 14:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  10. 2026-08-26 10:43 UTCOSV refresh
  11. 2026-08-25 13:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  12. 2026-08-19 16:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  13. 2026-08-18 13:42 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  14. 2026-08-16 02:09 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  15. 2026-08-15 01:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  16. 2026-08-10 00:10 UTCOSV refresh
  17. 2026-08-07 16:21 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  18. 2026-08-06 13:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  19. 2026-08-05 19:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  20. 2026-08-04 15:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  21. 2026-08-01 04:10 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  22. 2026-07-25 14:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  23. 2026-07-25 00:41 UTCOSV refresh
  24. 2026-07-23 14:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  25. 2026-07-23 01:00 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-07-23 00:37 UTCEG score recompute
  27. 2026-07-23 00:05 UTCEG score recompute
  28. 2026-07-22 21:44 UTCEG score recompute
  29. 2026-07-22 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  30. 2026-07-21 15:20 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  31. 2026-07-20 17:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  32. 2026-07-19 02:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  33. 2026-07-18 10:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  34. 2026-07-16 16:58 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  35. 2026-07-15 16:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  36. 2026-07-15 01:55 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  37. 2026-07-13 22:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  38. 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  39. 2026-07-07 20:11 UTCOSV refresh
  40. 2026-07-06 02:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  41. 2026-07-05 02:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  42. 2026-07-02 14:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  43. 2026-07-01 15:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  44. 2026-06-30 23:19 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  45. 2026-06-28 14:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  46. 2026-06-28 04:52 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  47. 2026-06-27 03:05 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  48. 2026-06-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  49. 2026-06-24 14:02 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  50. 2026-06-23 21:29 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  51. 2026-06-22 14:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  52. 2026-06-21 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  53. 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  54. 2026-06-19 07:25 UTCOSV refresh
  55. 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  56. 2026-06-17 17:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  57. 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  58. 2026-06-15 17:44 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 13% · 95th percentile
  59. 2026-06-14 23:14 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 1.9% · 83rd percentile
  60. 2026-06-13 22:57 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 1.9% · 83rd percentile
  61. 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 1.9% · 83rd percentile
  62. 2026-06-11 13:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 1.9% · 83rd percentile

Publicly available exploits

(1 reference)

Public exploit code is referenced for this CVE (1 Exploit-DB entry). No fix has been recorded since the CVE record was published in 2010. If the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names; if it no longer does, isolate the affected system or retire the product.

  • Exploit-DBEDB-33498✓ verified
    Published Jan 11, 2010

    Varnish 2.0.6 - 'Terminal Escape Sequence in Logs' Command Injection

    Open source ↗

Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2009-4488?
CVE-2009-4488 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on January 13, 2010. Varnish 2.0.6 writes data to a log file without sanitizing non-printable characters, which might allow remote attackers to modify a window's title, or possibly execute arbitrary commands or overwrite files, via an HTTP request containing an escape sequence for a terminal emulator. NOTE: the vendor…
When was CVE-2009-4488 made public?
CVE-2009-4488 was made public on January 10, 2010: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, MITRE Corporation, gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on January 13, 2010. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of April 23, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2009-4488 actively exploited?
CVE-2009-4488 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. EchelonGraph's EG-KEV model places it in Tier 2 (Weaponized), which is not evidence of exploitation: Exploit-DB marks a public exploit for it as verified. EchelonGraph does not test whether exploit code works. FIRST EPSS estimates a 13% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (96th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2009-4488?
CVE-2009-4488 has a CVSS v3 base score of 9.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2009-4488?
No fix for CVE-2009-4488 has been recorded since its CVE record was published in 2010. If the vendor still supports the product, apply the fixed version it names; if it no longer does, isolate the affected system (restrict network access to it, for example with a firewall, or keep it off the internet) or retire the product.

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