SolarisOperating system · Sun

CVE-1999-1588

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 1999-12-31
No fix yet
No fix has been published. The vendor has not shipped a fixed release or patch. You remain exposed.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit 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
Buffer overflow in nlps_server in Sun Solaris x86 2.4, 2.5, and 2.5.1 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code as root via a long string beginning with "NLPS:002:002:" to the listen (aka System V listener) port, TCP port 2766.

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
How this class of weakness works · CWE-119

The program reads or writes outside the bounds of an allocated buffer, corrupting adjacent memory. With crafted input an attacker can overwrite control data and, with effort, redirect execution to their own code. Remediation ranges from bounds checking and safe library functions to compiler mitigations, usually alongside a careful audit of the surrounding code.

General guidance for the memory buffer bounds error class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

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
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 2.4= 2.5= 2.5.1

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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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
Recommended fix High confidence

Migrate to a supported, modern operating system (e.g., Oracle Solaris 11.x or a current Linux distribution). Oracle Solaris 2.4-2.5.1 are obsolete and no longer receive security updates.

  1. Block inbound TCP traffic to port 2766 at the network perimeter firewall or using host-based filtering (e.g., iptables, TCP wrappers)
  2. If the nlps_server service is not required, disable it to eliminate the attack vector
  3. Add entries to /etc/hosts.deny or /etc/hosts.allow to restrict access to the service on port 2766
  4. Implement network segmentation to isolate systems running vulnerable Solaris versions from untrusted networks
Caveat Full system migration required; legacy Solaris 2.x applications may require re-engineering for modern OS compatibility

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

No vendor fix exists Solaris has not published a patch for this.

There is no version to upgrade to and no patch to apply. Every affected install stays exposed until the vendor ships a fix — or somebody else builds one.

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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-1999-1588 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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