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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-1999-0090

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1997-10-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Buffer overflow in AIX rcp command allows local users to obtain root access.

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 confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerability in AIX rcp (remote copy) command allows local unprivileged users to execute arbitrary code with root privileges by overflowing a buffer, achieving privilege escalation.

MitigationReplace rcp with secure alternatives like scp or sftp, or apply IBM AIX security patches if available for legacy systems; disable rcp if not required.

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
AixOperating system
Affected:= 4.1= 4.1.1= 4.1.3= 4.1.4= 4.1.5= 4.2

CVSS 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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify AIX version
    Run 'oslevel' or 'uname -a' to determine the installed AIX version
    Affected if The version shown is 4.1, 4.1.1, 4.1.3, 4.1.4, 4.1.5, or 4.2 (any of the listed affected versions)
  2. Verify rcp command exists
    Run 'which rcp' or check '/usr/bin/rcp' to see if the rcp binary is present on the system
    Affected if The rcp command is found on the system (the vulnerability requires rcp to be installed)
  3. Check rcp binary permissions and ownership
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/rcp' to inspect the file ownership and permissions
    Affected if The binary is owned by root and has setuid or setgid permissions, which would allow the buffer overflow to escalate to root privileges
  4. Confirm rcp is enabled in inetd
    Check '/etc/inetd.conf' for rcp entries or run 'grep rcp /etc/inetd.conf' to see if the rcp service is configured
    Affected if rcp is listed in inetd.conf and the service is active, allowing remote or local exploitation of the binary

A system is affected if it runs AIX version 4.1 through 4.2 and has the rcp command installed with root setuid permissions, enabling local privilege escalation via buffer overflow.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Replace rcp with secure alternatives like scp or sftp, or apply IBM AIX security patches if available for legacy systems; disable rcp if not required.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
36.0 hours of engineering $6,400
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0090 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data