FreeBSDOperating system
CVE-1999-0138
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 suidperl and sperl program do not give up root privileges when changing UIDs back to the original users, allowing 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 · high confidenceThe suidperl and sperl programs (setuid Perl wrappers) fail to properly drop root privileges when transitioning UIDs back to the original user after performing privileged operations, allowing attackers to retain root access.
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
= 2.0= 2.0.5= 2.1.0
Linux KernelOperating system
= 1.2.0= 2.0= 3.1.1= 1.3= 8= 9= 10= 3.2.5= 4all versions= 4.2= 4.2mpCVSS 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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Locate suidperl and sperl binariesRun 'find /usr -name suidperl -o -name sperl 2>/dev/null' or check common locations like /usr/bin/suidperl, /usr/bin/sperl, /usr/local/bin/suidperlAffected if Either binary exists on the system
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Check setuid permissionsRun 'ls -la /path/to/suidperl /path/to/sperl' to see if they are setuid (s flag in permissions)Affected if The binaries have setuid permissions (permissions contain 's' and are owned by root)
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Check Perl versionRun 'perl -v' or '/path/to/suidperl -v' to determine the Perl version installedAffected if The Perl version matches or falls within the affected ranges for the operating system
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Identify operating system and versionRun 'uname -a' and check the OS version (e.g., uname -r for FreeBSD, 'oslevel' for AIX, 'swver' for HP-UX)Affected if The OS and version matches one of the affected products and versions listed in the CVE
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Verify privilege dropping behavior (if applicable)Review any available documentation or test scripts that exercise suidperl/sperl with different UIDs to observe if root privileges are retainedAffected if The program fails to drop root privileges after executing user-level operations
The system is affected if suidperl or sperl with setuid root permissions exist and the OS version matches one of the affected products and versions listed in the CVE.
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 dataRemove or disable suidperl and sperl setuid binaries if present, and replace their functionality with safer alternatives like sudo that implement proper privilege dropping.
Fix this in FreeBSD
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 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 $1,424.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0138 — 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-1999-0138 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
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