High 7.2Published Apr 2, 2009

CVE-2009-1238Race condition in the HFS vfs sysctl interface in XNU 1228.8.20 and earlier on Apple Mac OS X 10.5.6 and earlier allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel memory corruption) by simultan…

Updated under an hour ago (Nov 2, 2026, 12:23 AM ET)

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It affects apple mac_os_x and 1 other product. Add what you run to find out whether that includes you.

No exploitation reported and no EPSS estimate yet.

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Race condition in the HFS vfs sysctl interface in XNU 1228.8.20 and earlier on Apple Mac OS X 10.5.6 and earlier allows local users to cause a denial of service (kernel memory corruption) by simultaneously executing the same HFS_SET_PKG_EXTENSIONS code path in multiple threads, which is problematic because of lack of mutex locking for an unspecified global variable.

CVSS: 7.2 HIGH (v2.0, NVD)AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
Weakness (CWE): CWE-362
Known exploited: Not in CISA's KEV catalog
EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days): Not loaded for this CVE
Assigned by: Not given
NVD analysis: Modified
Record last updated: Jun 16, 2026
First seen by InfoSec Signals: Nov 1, 2026

Affected products

Affected products

apple mac_os_x apple:mac_os_x	through 10.5.6; 10.0; 10.0.0; 10.0.1; 10.0.2; 10.0.3; 10.0.4; 10.1; and 51 more ranges	NVD
apple mac_os_x_server apple:mac_os_x_server	through 10.5.6; 10.0; 10.0.0; 10.0.1; 10.0.2; 10.0.3; 10.0.4; 10.1; and 47 more ranges	NVD

References

References

http://secunia.com/advisories/34424
http://www.digit-labs.org/files/exploits/xnu-vfssysctl-dos.c	exploit
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216401181
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/34202	exploit
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/8265

The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry

The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.