LinuxOperating system · Redhat
CVE-1999-0706
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 · uneditedLinux xmonisdn package allows local users to gain root privileges by modifying the IFS or PATH environmental variables.
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 xmonisdn package contains a setuid root binary that executes external commands without properly sanitizing the IFS (Internal Field Separator) and PATH environment variables. A local attacker can manipulate these variables to cause the program to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges, achieving privilege escalation.
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
LinuxOperating system
= 4.1= 4.2= 5.0= 5.1= 5.2= 6.0= 1.5.1= 1.7= 1.7.2= 2.0= 2.1= 2.2CVSS 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 xmonisdn package is installedRun 'rpm -qa | grep -i xmonisdn' on Red Hat systems, or check for the binary at /usr/sbin/xmonisdn if it existsAffected if The package or binary is present on the system
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Verify if the binary is setuid rootRun 'ls -la /usr/sbin/xmonisdn' (or the identified binary path) and check for 's' in the owner permissionsAffected if The binary has setuid root permissions (rwSr-xr-x or similar with 's' bit set)
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Confirm the operating system versionRun 'cat /etc/redhat-release' to identify the Red Hat versionAffected if The system is running Red Hat Linux 4.1, 4.2, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, or 6.0 and has the package installed
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Identify vulnerable binary behaviorRun 'strings' on the binary to look for external command invocations without absolute paths, or attempt to execute with manipulated IFS/PATH variablesAffected if The binary calls external commands using relative paths or inherits IFS/PATH from user environment
The system is affected if xmonisdn package is installed with setuid root binary on a vulnerable Red Hat version, allowing IFS/PATH manipulation for privilege escalation.
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 the xmonisdn package entirely, as it is obsolete software from 1999; if the functionality is required, replace the vulnerable binary with a properly written version that uses absolute paths and avoids environment variable dependency.
Fix this in Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 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 $1,664.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0706 — 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-1999-0706 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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