CVE-1999-0150
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 Perl fingerd program allows arbitrary command execution from remote 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 confidenceThe Perl-based finger daemon (fingerd) contains a command injection vulnerability where user-supplied input from remote finger requests is passed unsafely to shell execution functions (likely system() or exec()), allowing remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands on the host system with the privileges of the fingerd service.
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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
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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Check if fingerd is installedUse package manager to list installed packages (dpkg -l, rpm -qa, or ls /usr/sbin/fingerd) or check for running finger service processes (ps aux | grep finger)Affected if fingerd package is installed or finger service process is running
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Identify the fingerd implementationCheck the binary or script at /usr/sbin/fingerd or /usr/bin/fingerd; examine the file type (file command) or view the first few lines to determine if it is Perl-based (look for #!/usr/bin/perl shebang)Affected if The fingerd binary is a Perl script (contains #!/perl or #!/usr/bin/perl shebang)
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Verify finger service is accessibleCheck if finger port 79 is listening (netstat -an | grep 79 or ss -tlnp | grep 79) and if firewall allows inbound finger requestsAffected if Finger service is listening on port 79 and accessible from network
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Check fingerd configuration for user input handlingReview fingerd source code or configuration to confirm user-supplied input (the username from finger request) is passed directly to shell execution functions like system(), exec(), or backtick operators without sanitizationAffected if User input from finger requests is passed unsafely to shell functions without input validation
If the system runs a Perl-based fingerd that accepts remote input and passes it to shell execution functions without sanitization, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-1999-0150.
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 dataReplace the vulnerable Perl fingerd with a secure implementation that sanitizes all user input and avoids shell execution, or disable the finger service entirely if unnecessary, as finger protocol provides minimal security benefit.
- 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-1999-0150 — 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-1999-0150 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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