CVE-2000-0117
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 siteUserMod.cgi program in Cobalt RaQ2 servers allows any Site Administrator to modify passwords for other users, site administrators, and possibly admin (root).
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 siteUserMod.cgi program in Cobalt RaQ2 servers lacks proper authorization checks, allowing any Site Administrator to modify passwords for other users, site administrators, and potentially the admin/root account, enabling vertical privilege escalation.
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= 1.0all versionsall versionsCVSS 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 Cobalt RaQ modelCheck the system model/version by reviewing server hardware documentation, boot messages, or system information. Look for references to Sun Cobalt RaQ, RaQ 2, or RaQ 3i.Affected if The system is a Sun Cobalt RaQ 1.0, RaQ 2 (any version), or RaQ 3i (any version)
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Locate siteUserMod.cgiSearch the web root directories for the presence of the siteUserMod.cgi script. Typical paths may include /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/siteUserMod.cgi or /home/httpd/cgi-bin/siteUserMod.cgi. Use: find / -name 'siteUserMod.cgi' 2>/dev/nullAffected if The siteUserMod.cgi script exists on the server and is accessible via the web interface
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Verify Site Administrator role configurationCheck if Site Administrator accounts exist on the system. Review /etc/passwd or the system's user management configuration for site admin or siteadministrator accounts.Affected if Site Administrator accounts are configured and have web-based administrative access
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Confirm CGI authorization behaviorTest or inspect the siteUserMod.cgi script to determine if it enforces proper authorization checks before allowing password modifications. Review the script source code for proper permission validation on the 'uid' parameter used to specify target accounts.Affected if The script allows a Site Administrator to modify passwords for accounts other than their own without proper authorization validation
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Check for password modification logsReview web server access logs and system logs for unusual password modification activity, particularly POST requests to siteUserMod.cgi modifying root, admin, or other site administrator passwords.Affected if Unauthorized or unexpected password modification attempts are found in logs targeting privileged accounts
You are affected if you are running a Sun Cobalt RaQ 1.0, RaQ 2, or RaQ 3i with the siteUserMod.cgi script accessible to Site Administrators, as this permits unauthorized 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 dataReplace or retire the legacy Cobalt RaQ2 hardware as it is end-of-life; if operationally required, apply any available vendor patches and implement compensating controls such as network isolation and strict access logging.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-0117 — 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-2000-0117 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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- 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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