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SunosOperating system · Sun

CVE-1999-0410

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-03-05
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
The cancel command in Solaris 2.6 (i386) has a buffer overflow that allows local users to obtain 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 confidence

The cancel command in Solaris 2.6 (i386) contains a buffer overflow vulnerability that allows local unprivileged users to execute arbitrary code with root privileges, achieving privilege escalation.

MitigationApply Oracle/Sun security patches for Solaris 2.6, or migrate to a supported Solaris version. Until patched, restrict local shell access to trusted users only.

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
SunosOperating system
Affected:all versions

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. Identify the operating system
    Run 'uname -a' or 'uname -sr' to confirm if the system is running SunOS or Solaris
    Affected if The system is running any version of SunOS/Solaris
  2. Locate the cancel command binary
    Run 'which cancel' or 'find /usr -name cancel -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the cancel executable
    Affected if The cancel command exists on the system
  3. Verify OS version against affected range
    Run 'uname -v' or check '/etc/release' to determine the exact Solaris/Sunos version
    Affected if The system is running any version of SunOS (all versions are affected per the CVE)
  4. Check binary permissions
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/cancel' (or the path found in step 2) to verify the binary is present and executable
    Affected if The cancel binary exists and is executable by users

A user is affected if their system runs any version of SunOS/Solaris and has the cancel command accessible, as all SunOS versions contain this vulnerable binary.

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

Apply Oracle/Sun security patches for Solaris 2.6, or migrate to a supported Solaris version. Until patched, restrict local shell access to trusted users only.

Fix this in Sunos Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-1999-0410 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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