CVE-2000-0077
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 · uneditedThe October 1998 version of the HP-UX aserver program allows local users to gain privileges by specifying an alternate PATH which aserver uses to find the ps and grep commands.
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 confidenceThe October 1998 version of HP-UX aserver program contains a PATH manipulation vulnerability where the program uses an untrusted PATH to locate ps and grep system commands. Local users can manipulate the PATH environment variable to point to malicious versions of these commands, causing aserver to execute attacker-controlled code with elevated privileges.
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= 10= 11CVSS 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 HP-UX versionRun 'uname -a' or 'swlist -l product' to determine the exact HP-UX version and release dateAffected if The system is running HP-UX 10.x or 11.x from October 1998 or earlier without security patches applied
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Locate the aserver programRun 'which aserver' or 'find / -name aserver -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the aserver binaryAffected if The aserver program exists on the system and is executable by local users
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Verify aserver is in use or scheduledCheck for aserver processes with 'ps -ef | grep aserver' and review cron/at schedules for aserver executionAffected if The aserver program is running or scheduled to run, making PATH manipulation possible during execution
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Check current PATH environmentRun 'echo $PATH' to view the PATH variable, then verify if it contains writable directories (such as '.' or user-controlled paths)Affected if PATH contains directories writable by untrusted local users before system directories like /usr/bin
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Inspect ps and grep locationsRun 'which ps' and 'which grep' to see which locations are being used, then verify file permissions with 'ls -la /bin/ps /usr/bin/ps /bin/grep /usr/bin/grep'Affected if System commands ps and grep are accessible via directories that could be intercepted by a manipulated PATH
A user is affected if running HP-UX 10.x or 11.x (October 1998 release) with the aserver program present and a PATH variable that includes user-writable directories before system binary directories.
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 HP security patches for this vulnerability; if patches are unavailable for this legacy 1998 HP-UX version, consider migrating to a supported HP-UX release or compensating controls such as restricting local user access and monitoring for PATH manipulation.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,272.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-0077 — 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-2000-0077 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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