Description
GNU Wget before 1.12 does not properly handle a '\0' character in a domain name in the Common Name field of an X.509 certificate, which allows man-in-the-middle remote attackers to spoof arbitrary SSL servers via a crafted certificate issued by a legitimate Certification Authority, a related issue to CVE-2009-2408.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | wget | 1.12-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | wget | 1.12-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | wget | 1.12-1 | — |
| Debian 5.0 | wget | 1.11.4-2+lenny1 | DSA-1904-1 |
| Debian 4.0 | wget | 1.10.2-2+etch1 | DSA-1904-1 |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| RHEL 5 | wget | 1.11.4-2.el5_4.1 | RHSA-2009:1549 |
| RHEL 4 | wget | 1.10.2-1.el4_8.1 | RHSA-2009:1549 |
| RHEL 3 | wget | 1.10.2-0.30E.1 | RHSA-2009:1549 |
Advisories 2
- RHSA-2009:1549 Red Hat Security Advisory: wget security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 26, 2026
- DSA-1904-1 wget - SSL certificate verification weakness Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
References
- [bug-wget] 20090922 Release: GNU Wget 1.12 mailing-list
- [oss-security] 20090923 Re: More CVE-2009-2408 like issues mailing-list
- ADV-2009-2498 vdb-entry
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=520454
- [wget-notify] 20090805 [bug #27183] Wget likely suffers from the \0 SSL cert vulnerability mailing-list
- http://kb.juniper.net/InfoCenter/index?page=content&id=JSA10705
- 36540 third-party-advisory
- 36205 vdb-entry
- oval:org.mitre.oval:def:11099 vdb-entry signature
- http://hg.addictivecode.org/wget/mainline/rev/1eab157d3be7
- [oss-security] 20090903 More CVE-2009-2408 like issues mailing-list