CVE-1999-0049
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 · uneditedCsetup under IRIX allows arbitrary file creation or overwriting.
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 · moderate confidenceCsetup, a utility program on IRIX (Silicon Graphics' Unix operating system), contains a vulnerability that allows arbitrary file creation or overwriting. The flaw likely stems from improper validation of file paths or insufficient privilege controls, potentially allowing a local attacker to create or overwrite sensitive files on the system.
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= 5= 6.0= 6.0.1= 6.1= 6.2CVSS 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
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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 the operating systemRun 'uname -a' or 'uname -r' to confirm if the system is running SGI IRIXAffected if The OS is SGI IRIX and the version matches 5.x, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.1, or 6.2 from the uname output
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Locate the Csetup binaryRun 'which csetup' or 'find / -name csetup -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the Csetup utility on the systemAffected if The Csetup executable exists on the system at any location
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Check Csetup file permissionsRun 'ls -la <path_to_csetup>' to inspect ownership and permissionsAffected if Csetup is owned by root and has setuid bit set, or is writable by low-privileged users
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Verify IRIX version matches affected rangeCheck the specific IRIX version by running 'cat /etc/issue' or 'osversion' commandAffected if The installed IRIX version is 5.x, 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.1, or 6.2 exactly as listed in the affected products
If the system runs SGI IRIX versions 5.x through 6.2 and has the Csetup utility present, the environment is vulnerable to arbitrary file creation/overwrite attacks.
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 dataSince IRIX is a legacy operating system no longer supported by Oracle (who acquired SGI), organizations should identify whether any IRIX systems are still in production. If still required, isolate these systems network-wise and disable or remove the Csetup utility. Consider migrating to a supported operating system.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0049 — 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-1999-0049 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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