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SunosOperating system · Sun

CVE-1999-0841

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-11-30
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 CDE mailtool allows local users to gain root privileges via a long MIME Content-Type.

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 · moderate confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerability in CDE (Common Desktop Environment) mailtool enables local users to escalate privileges to root by providing an excessively long MIME Content-Type header. The overflow occurs during mail header parsing, allowing an attacker to overwrite stack memory and execute arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

MitigationApply vendor patches for CDE mailtool if available; restrict local shell access to untrusted users and consider migrating away from legacy CDE mail infrastructure.

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:= 5.7

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 version
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to determine the exact SunOS version
    Affected if The system is running SunOS 5.7 specifically
  2. Verify CDE installation
    Check for CDE packages using 'pkginfo | grep -i cde' or look for /usr/dt directory which contains CDE components
    Affected if CDE (Common Desktop Environment) is installed on the system
  3. Locate the mailtool binary
    Search for the mailtool executable using 'find /usr -name mailtool -type f 2>/dev/null'
    Affected if The mailtool binary exists in the /usr/dt or related paths
  4. Confirm mailtool version
    Run 'mailtool -version' or 'mailtool -V' if available, or use 'file' on the binary
    Affected if mailtool version cannot be determined or matches the vulnerable CDE implementation from SunOS 5.7
  5. Check user access to mailtool
    Verify file permissions on the mailtool binary using 'ls -la <path-to-mailtool>'
    Affected if Non-root users have execute access to the mailtool binary

The environment is affected if running SunOS 5.7 with CDE mailtool installed and accessible to local users.

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 vendor patches for CDE mailtool if available; restrict local shell access to untrusted users and consider migrating away from legacy CDE mail infrastructure.

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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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-1999-0841 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