CVE-1999-0108
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 · uneditedThe printers program in IRIX has a buffer overflow that gives root access to local users.
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 confidenceThe printers program in IRIX contains a buffer overflow vulnerability that allows local unprivileged users to gain root access. This is a classic stack-based buffer overflow in a system utility that runs with elevated privileges.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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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Confirm the operating system is SGI IRIXRun 'uname -a' or check /etc/issue to verify the OS is SGI IRIX. This CVE affects only IRIX systems.Affected if The system is running any version of SGI IRIX
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Locate the printers program on the systemSearch for the printers binary using 'find / -name printers -type f 2>/dev/null' or check common system utility directories like /usr/bin/printers or /usr/sbin/printers.Affected if The printers program exists on the IRIX system
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Check file permissions and ownershipRun 'ls -la /path/to/printers' (using the path found in step 2) to examine the file's permission bits and owner. Look for SUID (setuid) or SGID (setgid) bits and whether the owner is root.Affected if The printers program has SUID or SGID bits set and is owned by root, allowing it to run with elevated privileges
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Verify the program is executable by regular usersCheck if standard user accounts can execute the printers program. Attempt to run it as a non-privileged user if permitted, or verify world-executable permissions exist.Affected if Non-privileged users can execute the printers program
A user is affected if they are running SGI IRIX with the printers program present and executable by unprivileged users, particularly if it has SUID/SGID permissions.
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 receiving security updates, the primary mitigation is to either remove or disable the vulnerable printers program, or migrate to a supported operating system. Network segmentation can limit exposure if the system must remain operational.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0108 — 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-1999-0108 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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