dbcve.org
SolarisOperating system · Sun

CVE-1999-0135

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1996-07-25
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
admintool in Solaris allows a local user to write to arbitrary files and gain 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

The admintool utility in older Solaris versions contains a flaw allowing local users to write to arbitrary files on the system, which can be exploited to gain root privileges.

MitigationRestrict access to admintool to trusted local users only; migrate to modern Solaris versions or alternative administration tools as admintool is obsolete.

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
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 2.5= 2.5.1
SunosOperating system
Affected:= 5.5= 5.5.1

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. Check the installed SunOS/Solaris version
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to identify the exact OS version
    Affected if The version is 2.5, 2.5.1, 5.5, or 5.5.1
  2. Verify if admintool is installed
    Check for the presence of /usr/bin/admintool or run 'which admintool'
    Affected if admintool binary exists on the system
  3. Check admintool file permissions and ownership
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/admintool' to view permissions, owner, and group
    Affected if The binary is world-executable or writable by non-privileged users
  4. Check if admintool has elevated privileges
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/admintool' and look for the setuid bit (s in permissions)
    Affected if admintool has the setuid bit set and is owned by root
  5. Inspect admintool configuration files
    Check /etc/admintool.db or examine admintool's configuration directory for world-writable files
    Affected if Configuration files are writable by non-privileged users

A system is affected if it runs Solaris/SunOS 2.5-2.5.1 or 5.5-5.5.1, has admintool installed with setuid root permissions, and allows untrusted local users access to the tool.

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

Restrict access to admintool to trusted local users only; migrate to modern Solaris versions or alternative administration tools as admintool is obsolete.

Fix this in Solaris Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation24.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,840
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,544.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0135 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-1999-0135 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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