CVE-2019-9705 — vixie-cron: memory consumption DoS via a large crontab file

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MEDIUM

vixie-cron: memory consumption DoS via a large crontab file

Published Mar 12, 2019

5.5

MEDIUM

CVSS 3.1

EPSS 0.35%

Description

Vixie Cron before the 3.0pl1-133 Debian package allows local users to cause a denial of service (memory consumption) via a large crontab file because an unlimited number of lines is accepted.

Affected products

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

vixie-cron

Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

cronie

Out of support scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

cronie

Will not fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

cronie

Will not fix

Product	Package	State	Advisory
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5	vixie-cron	Out of support scope	n/a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6	cronie	Out of support scope	n/a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7	cronie	Will not fix	n/a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	cronie	Will not fix	n/a

Remediation

No remediation recorded yet.

Metrics

0.35% 0.00354

Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.

EPSS probability 0.00354

Score over time

2021–2026

EPSS v1
EPSS v5
EPSS v2
EPSS v3

Percentile over time

EPSS v1
EPSS v5
EPSS v2
EPSS v3

Table of values (10 key points)

Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.

Date	Score	Percentile	Model
Oct 1, 2026	0.35% (0.00354)	26.67th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Sep 20, 2026	0.35% (0.00354)	29.10th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Jul 20, 2024	0.04% (0.00042)	5.06th	v3 (v2023.03.01)
Mar 7, 2023	0.04% (0.00042)	5.63th	v3 (v2023.03.01)
Mar 6, 2023	0.95% (0.00950)	32.28th	v2 (v2022.01.01)
Feb 4, 2022	1.67% (0.01669)	53.27th	v2 (v2022.01.01)
Feb 3, 2022	3.62% (0.03615)	68.44th	v1
Jan 6, 2022	3.62% (0.03615)	68.14th	v1
Jan 5, 2022	0.83% (0.00829)	53.71th	v5 (v2026.06.15)
Apr 14, 2021	0.69% (0.00691)	0.00th	v1

Weaknesses (2)

CWE-400

Uncontrolled Resource Consumption

CWE-770

Allocation of Resources Without Limits

References (9)

http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/107378
vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-9705
Vendor Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1687694
Issue Tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/03/msg00025.html
mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/10/msg00029.html
mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6DU7HAUAQR4E4AEBPYLUV6FZ4PHKH6A2/
vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9705
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/cron/commit/26814a26
x_refsource_MISCPatchThird Party Advisory
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-9705

Link	Providers	Tags
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/107378		vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDThird Party AdvisoryVDB Entry
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2019-9705		Vendor Advisory
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1687694		Issue Tracking
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/03/msg00025.html		mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2021/10/msg00029.html		mailing-listx_refsource_MLISTMailing ListThird Party Advisory
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/6DU7HAUAQR4E4AEBPYLUV6FZ4PHKH6A2/		vendor-advisoryx_refsource_FEDORA
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-9705
https://salsa.debian.org/debian/cron/commit/26814a26		x_refsource_MISCPatchThird Party Advisory
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-9705