CVE-2009-1072: Canonical Ubuntu Linux

Medium severity, CVSS 4.9. EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

nfsd in the Linux kernel before 2.6.28.9 does not drop the CAP_MKNOD capability before handling a user request in a thread, which allows local users to create device nodes, as demonstrated on a filesystem that has been exported with the root_squash option.

Affected products

• Canonical Ubuntu Linux: version 6.06 only; version 8.04 only; version 8.10 only; version 9.04 only
• Debian Debian Linux: version 4.0 only; version 5.0 only
• Linux Linux Kernel: before 2.6.28.9 (fixed in 2.6.28.9)
• Opensuse Opensuse: version 10.3 only; version 11.0 only; version 11.1 only
• Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop: version 10 only
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server: version 10 only
• VMware Esx: version 3.0.3 only; version 3.5 only; version 4.0 only
• VMware Server: version 2.0.0 only
• VMware vCenter Server: version 4.0 only
• VMware Virtualcenter: version 2.0.2 only; version 2.5 only
• VMware Vma: version 4.0 only

Published 2009-03-25. Last modified 2026-06-16.