varnish — security advisory
The Command Line Interface (aka Server CLI or administration interface) in the master process in the reverse proxy server in Varnish before 2.1.0 does not require authentication for commands received through a TCP port, which allows remote attackers to (1) execute arbitrary code via a vcl.inline directive that provides a VCL configuration file containing inline C code; (2) change the ownership of the master process via param.set, stop, and start directives; (3) read the initial line of an arbitrary file via a vcl.load directive; or (4) conduct cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks that leverage a victim's location on a trusted network and improper input validation of directives. NOTE: the vendor disputes this report, saying that it is "fundamentally misguided and pointless.
- Products
- varnish
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- 2.1.0-2
- CVEs
- CVE-2009-2936
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 23:20 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
The Command Line Interface (aka Server CLI or administration interface) in the master process in the reverse proxy server in Varnish before 2.1.0 does not require authentication for commands received through a TCP port, which allows remote attackers to (1) execute arbitrary code via a vcl.inline directive that provides a VCL configuration file containing inline C code; (2) change the ownership of the master process via param.set, stop, and start directives; (3) read the initial line of an arbitrary file via a vcl.load directive; or (4) conduct cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks that leverage a victim's location on a trusted network and improper input validation of directives. NOTE: the vendor disputes this report, saying that it is "fundamentally misguided and pointless.
osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936
varnish
Fixed versions: 2.1.0-2
varnish
Fixed versions: 2.1.0-2
Complete source record
{
"id": "35c38db704430d9ef7f8030af748a8aea04d059dbaee0e46093e8fb87a37c346",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936",
"summary": "The Command Line Interface (aka Server CLI or administration interface) in the master process in the reverse proxy server in Varnish before 2.1.0 does not require authentication for commands received through a TCP port, which allows remote attackers to (1) execute arbitrary code via a vcl.inline directive that provides a VCL configuration file containing inline C code; (2) change the ownership of the master process via param.set, stop, and start directives; (3) read the initial line of an arbitrary file via a vcl.load directive; or (4) conduct cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks that leverage a victim's location on a trusted network and improper input validation of directives. NOTE: the vendor disputes this report, saying that it is \"fundamentally misguided and pointless.",
"evidence": "osv:DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936",
"products": [
{
"name": {
"value": "varnish",
"evidence": "/affected/0/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2.1.0-2",
"evidence": "/affected/0/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
},
{
"name": {
"value": "varnish",
"evidence": "/affected/1/package/name"
},
"prerequisites": [],
"fixed_versions": [
{
"value": "2.1.0-2",
"evidence": "/affected/1/ranges"
}
],
"affected_versions": []
}
],
"severity": "unknown",
"structured": {
"id": "DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936",
"aliases": [
"DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936"
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2.1.0-2"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "varnish",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/varnish?arch=source&distro=bookworm",
"ecosystem": "Debian:12"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "unimportant"
}
},
{
"ranges": [
{
"type": "ECOSYSTEM",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "2.1.0-2"
}
]
}
],
"package": {
"name": "varnish",
"purl": "pkg:deb/debian/varnish?arch=source&distro=trixie",
"ecosystem": "Debian:13"
},
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/debian-osv/debian-cve-osv/DEBIAN-CVE-2009-2936.json"
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"urgency": "unimportant"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-23T17:47:41.126213294Z",
"provider": "osv",
"upstream": [
"CVE-2009-2936"
],
"references": [
"https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2009-2936"
]
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2009-2936",
"evidence": "/upstream"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": null
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 418341,
"published_at": "2010-04-05T16:30:00.453+00:00"
}