CVE-1999-1096
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow in kscreensaver in KDE klock allows local users to gain root privileges via a long HOME environmental variable.
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 confidenceBuffer overflow in kscreensaver (KDE klock) allows local users to execute arbitrary code with root privileges by supplying an overly long HOME environment variable, exploiting insufficient bounds checking on the variable.
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= 1.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Check installed KDE versionRun 'kde-config --version' or 'kde-config --kde-version' to identify the KDE version. Alternatively, check package management tools (rpm -qa | grep -i kde, dpkg -l | grep -i kde, or similar depending on Linux distribution).Affected if The installed KDE version is 1.0 (exact match to the affected version)
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Locate kscreensaver or klock binaryRun 'which kscreensaver' or 'which klock' to find the executable path. Also check /usr/lib/kde/ or /opt/kde/bin/ directories for these binaries.Affected if The kscreensaver or klock binary exists on the system (indicates the vulnerable component is present)
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Verify if kscreensaver runs with elevated privilegesCheck the permissions and ownership of the kscreensaver/klock binary (ls -la). Examine /etc/sudoers or sudo configuration if kscreensaver is invoked via sudo. Check if screensaver is launched automatically at login with elevated privileges.Affected if The kscreensaver or klock binary runs as root or with setuid root permissions, allowing a local user to escalate privileges via the HOME variable overflow
A system is affected if it runs KDE version 1.0 with the kscreensaver or klock binary present and that binary executes with root privileges, allowing a local user to exploit the unbounded HOME environment variable 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 dataApply available KDE patches or upgrade to a patched version of KDE. Alternatively, restrict local user access to systems running vulnerable klock versions and monitor for suspicious HOME variable manipulation.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-1096 — 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-1999-1096 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
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