Vulnerability in FreeBSD

CVE-2009-4358

freebsd-update in FreeBSD 8.0, 7.2, 7.1, 6.4, and 6.3 uses insecure permissions in its working directory (/var/db/freebsd-update by default), which allows local users to read copies of sensitive files after a (1) freebsd-update fetch (fetch) or (2) freebsd-update upgrade (upgrade) operation.

Published 2009-12-20 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v2 metric

CVSS v2 base score 4.7 (Medium). Vector: AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:N/A:N. This CVE predates CVSS v3 and has no v3 score from NVD.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (17.6th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 18th percentile — 17.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.003 · change: 0.000

Affected products

FreeBSD — versions 6.3, 6.4, 7.1

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-264

References

security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-09:17.freebsd-update.asc (vendor-advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/37190 (Patch, vdb-entry)
secunia.com/advisories/37575 (Vendor Advisory, third-party-advisory)