FreeBSDOperating system
CVE-1999-0628
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 rwho/rwhod service is running, which exposes machine status and user information.
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 rwho/rwhod service runs on Unix/Linux systems and broadcasts user login information and machine status to the local network via UDP ports 513 and 514. Remote attackers can passively collect sensitive information about logged-in users and system availability without authentication.
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
= 6.2
Linux KernelOperating system
= 2.6.20.1= 4.2= 2.0.4CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
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 rwhod daemon is runningRun 'ps aux | grep rwhod' or 'ps -ef | grep rwhod' to see if the rwhod process is activeAffected if The rwhod process appears in the process list, indicating the service is running
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Verify UDP ports 513 and 514 are listeningRun 'netstat -uan | grep -E "(513|514)"' or 'ss -uan | grep -E "(513|514)"' to check if these UDP ports are openAffected if UDP ports 513 or 514 show as LISTENING or OPEN, meaning the service is exposed on the network
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Check if rwho service is enabled in inetd.confInspect /etc/inetd.conf for uncommented entries containing 'rwho' or 'rwhod'Affected if An active (uncommented) line for rwho or rwhod exists in /etc/inetd.conf
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Compare your installed kernel version to affected Linux versionsRun 'uname -r' or 'cat /proc/version' to get the kernel version, then compare to the affected range (Linux Kernel = 2.6.20.1)Affected if The Linux kernel version is 2.6.20.1 or matches the other listed affected versions (FreeBSD 6.2, AIX 4.2, NetBSD 2.0.4)
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Check if system is broadcasting who informationUse 'ruptime' or 'rwho -a' from another system on the same network segment to query for system informationAffected if The system responds to rwho/ruptime queries, confirming it is broadcasting login and availability data
A system is affected if the rwho/rwhod service is actively running and exposing UDP ports 513/514, regardless of version, or if it matches the specific affected versions listed.
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 dataDisable the rwho/rwhod services by removing or commenting out entries in /etc/inetd.conf and blocking UDP ports 513 and 514 at the network perimeter.
Fix this in FreeBSD
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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 $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0628 — 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-1999-0628 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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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.
- 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