What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2009-2422

• Severity: critical (CVSS 9.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 3.4% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2009-07-10 · updated 2026-06-16
• Weakness: CWE-287

Description

The example code for the digest authentication functionality (http_authentication.rb) in Ruby on Rails before 2.3.3 defines an authenticate_or_request_with_http_digest block that returns nil instead of false when the user does not exist, which allows context-dependent attackers to bypass authentication for applications that are derived from this example by sending an invalid username without a password.

Affected products

• macOS: from 10.6.0 before 10.6.3; 10.5.8 — fixed in 10.6.3
• Apple Mac Os X Server: from 10.6.0 before 10.6.3; 10.5.8 — fixed in 10.6.3
• rubyonrails Ruby On Rails: before 2.3.3 — fixed in 2.3.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: macOS 10.6.3; Apple Mac Os X Server 10.6.3; rubyonrails Ruby On Rails 2.3.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html
• http://n8.tumblr.com/post/117477059/security-hole-found-in-rails-2-3s
• http://secunia.com/advisories/35702
• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077
• http://weblog.rubyonrails.org/2009/6/3/security-problem-with-authenticate_with_http_digest
• http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/35579
• http://www.vupen.com/english/advisories/2009/1802
• https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/51528
• http://lists.apple.com/archives/security-announce/2010//Mar/msg00001.html
• http://n8.tumblr.com/post/117477059/security-hole-found-in-rails-2-3s
• http://secunia.com/advisories/35702
• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4077

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