dbcve.org
CfingerdApplication · Infodrom

CVE-1999-0708

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-09-21
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
Buffer overflow in cfingerd allows local users to gain root privileges via a long GECOS field.

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

Buffer overflow vulnerability in cfingerd (finger daemon) allows local unprivileged users to escalate to root by exploiting a buffer overflow through an excessively long GECOS field in the user database.

MitigationIf cfingerd is required, apply available patches or upgrade to a patched version. If not needed, remove cfingerd entirely to eliminate the attack surface.

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
CfingerdApplication
Affected:= 1.4.2

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. Locate cfingerd binary
    Run 'which cfingerd' or search with 'find /usr -name cfingerd 2>/dev/null' to locate the cfingerd executable
    Affected if cfingerd binary is found on the system
  2. Determine cfingerd version
    Run 'cfingerd -v' or 'cfingerd -V' or check the binary with 'rpm -qi cfingerd' / 'dpkg -l cfingerd' if installed via package manager
    Affected if Version is 1.4.2 exactly
  3. Check if cfingerd service is running
    Run 'ps aux | grep cfingerd' or check service status with 'systemctl status cfingerd' or 'service cfingerd status'
    Affected if cfingerd process is actively running
  4. Verify finger daemon listener
    Check if port 79 is open and listening with 'netstat -tlnp | grep :79' or 'ss -tlnp | grep :79'
    Affected if Finger service is listening on port 79

User is affected if cfingerd version 1.4.2 is installed and the finger daemon service is running, allowing a local attacker to exploit the GECOS field buffer overflow for privilege escalation.

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

If cfingerd is required, apply available patches or upgrade to a patched version. If not needed, remove cfingerd entirely to eliminate the attack surface.

Fix this in Cfingerd Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0708 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-1999-0708 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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