CVE-1999-0013
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedStolen credentials from SSH clients via ssh-agent program, allowing other local users to access remote accounts belonging to the ssh-agent user.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe ssh-agent program, used to cache SSH private keys in memory for convenience, creates a Unix domain socket with insufficient access controls. By default, other local users can access this socket (typically via /tmp/ssh-XXXXXX/agent.<pid> or similar paths), allowing them to authenticate as the original user to any remote systems for which that user has cached credentials.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data= 1.2.0= 1.2.1= 1.2.2= 1.2.3= 1.2.4= 1.2.5= 1.2.6= 1.2.7= 1.2.8= 1.2.9= 1.2.10= 1.2.11CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if ssh-agent is runningRun 'ps aux | grep ssh-agent' to see if the ssh-agent process is activeAffected if ssh-agent is running and the process appears in the output
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Locate the ssh-agent socketCheck the SSH_AUTH_SOCK environment variable with 'echo $SSH_AUTH_SOCK' or list contents of /tmp directory for ssh-XXXXXX directoriesAffected if SSH_AUTH_SOCK is set and points to a socket file in /tmp or similar world-accessible location
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Verify socket file permissionsRun 'ls -la' on the socket path (e.g., ls -la /tmp/ssh-XXXXXX/agent.<pid>) to view permission bitsAffected if The socket file shows permissions other than 0600 (e.g., 0777, 0775, 0666) or allows read/write access to group or other users
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Test cross-user socket accessibilityAs a different local user, attempt to access the socket path (e.g., 'ls -l <socket_path>' or 'ssh -S <socket_path> -v' to verify connectivity)Affected if A non-owner user can read from or list the socket file, indicating the socket is accessible to other local users
A defender is affected if ssh-agent is running with a socket accessible to other local users (permissions not restricted to owner only), allowing privilege escalation to cached SSH credentials.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataEnsure the SSH_AUTH_SOCK socket has restrictive permissions (0600 or restricted to owner only), avoid using ssh-agent in multi-user environments, or upgrade to modern SSH versions that enforce proper socket isolation.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0013 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0013 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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