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Debian LinuxOperating system · Debian

CVE-1999-0914

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-01-03
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 the FTP client in the Debian GNU/Linux netstd package.

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 the FTP client component of Debian's netstd package allows local privilege escalation or arbitrary code execution with the privileges of the FTP client user.

MitigationReplace or remove the deprecated netstd package and migrate to a maintained FTP client implementation; if the package must be retained, apply any historical patches from Debian security archives.

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
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 1.1= 1.2= 1.3= 1.3.1= 2.0

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. Check if netstd package is installed
    Run 'dpkg -l netstd' or 'dpkg -s netstd' to query the package database
    Affected if The package is installed and shows in the query output
  2. Retrieve the installed version of netstd
    Run 'dpkg -s netstd 2>/dev/null | grep Version' or 'dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' netstd'
    Affected if The version returned matches one of the affected versions: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.3.1, or 2.0
  3. Locate the FTP client binary from netstd
    Run 'dpkg -L netstd | grep -i ftp' to list files and look for ftp client executables such as 'ftp' in /usr/bin or /usr/sbin
    Affected if The FTP client binary from the netstd package exists on the system
  4. Verify the FTP client is executable and accessible
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/ftp /usr/sbin/ftp 2>/dev/null' and check ownership/permissions
    Affected if The binary exists and is owned by the netstd package (check via 'dpkg -S /usr/bin/ftp' 2>/dev/null)

A user is affected if the netstd package is installed and its version is one of the listed affected Debian versions (1.1 through 2.0), since the buffer overflow vulnerability exists in the FTP client component of this package.

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

Replace or remove the deprecated netstd package and migrate to a maintained FTP client implementation; if the package must be retained, apply any historical patches from Debian security archives.

Fix this in Debian Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-1999-0914 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