CVE-1999-1232
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 · uneditedUntrusted search path vulnerability in day5datacopier in SGI IRIX 6.2 allows local users to execute arbitrary commands via a modified PATH environment variable that points to a malicious cp program.
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 confidenceThe day5datacopier utility in SGI IRIX 6.2 uses relative paths when invoking the cp command, allowing a local attacker to execute arbitrary code by placing a malicious cp binary in a directory that appears earlier in the PATH environment 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= 6.2CVSS 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
- 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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Identify the operating system versionRun 'uname -a' or 'oslevel' to confirm the system is SGI IRIX 6.2Affected if The system is running SGI IRIX version 6.2 exactly
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Locate the day5datacopier utilitySearch for the day5datacopier binary using 'find / -name day5datacopier 2>/dev/null' or check common utility directoriesAffected if The day5datacopier utility is present on the system
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Inspect the utility for relative path usageUse 'strings' or 'cat' on the binary to search for calls to 'cp' without absolute paths (e.g., looking for 'cp' versus '/bin/cp')Affected if The binary invokes 'cp' using a relative path rather than an absolute path like /bin/cp or /usr/bin/cp
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Examine the PATH environment variableRun 'echo $PATH' to view the current PATH setting, noting the order of directoriesAffected if The PATH contains writable directories (such as '.' or user-controlled directories) that appear before system binary directories like /bin or /usr/bin
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Check file permissions on PATH directoriesUse 'ls -la' on each directory in PATH to determine if any are writable by untrusted usersAffected if Any directory in PATH that precedes system binary directories is writable by local users other than root
A user is affected if they are running SGI IRIX 6.2 with the day5datacopier utility present and the PATH environment variable contains writable directories before system paths, allowing PATH hijacking to execute arbitrary code.
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 dataSince this affects SGI IRIX 6.2 (a legacy operating system from the 1990s), the primary remediation is to either decommission the system or ensure it is fully isolated with no untrusted local users. If continued use is required, recompile the utility using absolute paths for system commands.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-1232 — 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-1999-1232 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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