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LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-1999-1299

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1997-02-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable 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
rcp on various Linux systems including Red Hat 4.0 allows a "nobody" user or other user with UID of 65535 to overwrite arbitrary files, since 65535 is interpreted as -1 by chown and other system calls, which causes the calls to fail to modify the ownership of the file.

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

rcp on Linux systems including Red Hat 4.0 contains a vulnerability where a user with UID 65535 (or the 'nobody' user) can overwrite arbitrary files. This occurs because UID 65535 is interpreted as -1 by chown and related system calls, causing ownership modification to fail silently while still allowing the file operation to proceed, enabling privilege escalation.

MitigationDisable rcp and migrate to secure alternatives like scp or sftp over SSH. For legacy systems requiring rcp, apply vendor patches or consider migrating to supported operating system versions.

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
LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 4.0
Slackware LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 3.1

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/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 rcp is installed
    Run 'which rcp' or 'rpm -q rcp' to determine if the rcp command exists on the system
    Affected if rcp is present on the system and the OS is Red Hat 4.0 or Slackware 3.1
  2. Verify the operating system version
    Run 'cat /etc/redhat-release' for Red Hat or 'cat /etc/slackware-version' for Slackware to identify the exact OS version
    Affected if The system is running Red Hat Linux 4.0 or Slackware Linux 3.1 specifically
  3. Check for users with UID 65535
    Run 'awk -F: '($3 == 65535) {print}' /etc/passwd' to identify any accounts with UID 65535
    Affected if A user account exists with UID 65535 on the affected system
  4. Verify the nobody user UID
    Run 'grep nobody /etc/passwd' to check the UID assigned to the nobody user
    Affected if The nobody user has UID 65535 on the affected system
  5. Test UID 65535 behavior with file operations
    Attempt to create or copy a file using an account with UID 65535 and observe if chown ownership changes fail silently while the file operation succeeds
    Affected if UID 65535 causes chown to fail silently while the file operation completes, indicating the vulnerability is present

A system is affected if it is running Red Hat Linux 4.0 or Slackware Linux 3.1, has rcp installed, and contains a user account with UID 65535 that can perform file operations.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Disable rcp and migrate to secure alternatives like scp or sftp over SSH. For legacy systems requiring rcp, apply vendor patches or consider migrating to supported operating system versions.

Recommended fix High confidence

Modern supported Linux distribution (e.g., Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+/8+, Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 LTS, CentOS Stream)

  1. Identify and decommission systems running Red Hat 4.0 or Slackware Linux 3.1, as these distributions are no longer supported
  2. Migrate to a modern, actively supported Linux distribution such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux (current supported versions), Ubuntu LTS, or CentOS Stream
  3. Ensure the new system receives regular security updates
  4. Verify that the rcp utility (if needed) is from a trusted source and patched against this and other vulnerabilities
  5. Consider using safer alternatives to rcp such as scp or sftp which do not have this vulnerability
Caveat Full system migration required; legacy applications may need testing or porting to new environment; rcp is deprecated in favor of scp/sftp

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in 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-1999-1299 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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