FreeBSDOperating system
CVE-1999-0131
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow and denial of service in Sendmail 8.7.5 and earlier through GECOS field 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 · high confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in Sendmail versions 8.7.5 and earlier allows local users to gain root privileges through malformed input in the GECOS field (user information field in /etc/passwd). The vulnerability also enables denial of service conditions.
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
FreeBSDOperating system
= 2.1.5
LinuxOperating system
= 3.0.3= 8.6= 8.7.1= 8.7.2= 8.7.3= 8.7.4= 8.7.5= 2.1= 1.3.2= 10.01= 10.10= 10.20= 3.2= 4.1= 4.2= 1.0CVSS 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 Sendmail installation and versionRun 'sendmail -V' or 'sendmail -d0.1' to retrieve the Sendmail version numberAffected if The reported version is 8.6, 8.7.1, 8.7.2, 8.7.3, 8.7.4, or 8.7.5 (any version 8.7.5 or earlier)
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Check for Sendmail binary presenceRun 'which sendmail' or 'dpkg -l | grep sendmail' (Debian) or 'rpm -qa | grep sendmail' (Red Hat) to confirm Sendmail is installedAffected if Sendmail is installed and the version cannot be determined or matches affected versions
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Verify GECOS field handling capabilityConfirm /etc/passwd exists and contains user entries with GECOS fields (the fifth field containing user info such as full name)Affected if The system uses traditional /etc/passwd format with GECOS fields, which is the default for the affected operating systems
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Check for untrusted local user accountsReview /etc/passwd to identify non-privileged local user accounts that could exploit this vulnerabilityAffected if There are local users (other than root) on the system who could potentially trigger the buffer overflow
You are affected if your system runs Sendmail version 8.7.5 or earlier and contains local user accounts that could exploit the GECOS field buffer overflow to gain root privileges.
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 dataUpgrade to Sendmail 8.8 or later, or migrate to a modern mail transfer agent. If legacy Sendmail must be used, ensure proper patch management and consider network isolation.
Fix this in FreeBSD
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0131 — 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-1999-0131 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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