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SolarisOperating system · Sun

CVE-2001-0190

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v2.0 Published 2001-03-26
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.8 or later.
See remediation →
77/100
Remediation priority · High
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 /usr/bin/cu in Solaris 2.8 and earlier, and possibly other operating systems, allows local users to gain privileges by executing cu with a long program name (arg0).

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

Buffer overflow vulnerability in /usr/bin/cu on Solaris 2.8 and earlier allows local privilege escalation via a long program name (argv[0]) that overwrites stack memory and potentially executes arbitrary code with elevated privileges.

MitigationApply vendor patches for this vulnerability from Oracle/Sun; as interim measure, restrict execution permissions on /usr/bin/cu or monitor for suspicious argv[0] manipulation.

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
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 2.6
SunosOperating system
Affected:<= 5.8= 5.4= 5.5= 5.5.1= 5.7

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify the operating system version
    Run 'uname -a' or 'cat /etc/release' to determine if the system is Sun Solaris or SunOS and its version number
    Affected if The OS is Sun Solaris 2.6, or SunOS 5.8, 5.7, 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.4, or earlier (versions 2.8 or below)
  2. Verify /usr/bin/cu exists
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/cu' to confirm the vulnerable binary is present on the system
    Affected if The file /usr/bin/cu exists on the system
  3. Check if cu is setuid or setgid
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/cu' and examine the permission string for an 's' in the owner or group execute fields
    Affected if The binary has setuid (suid) or setgid (sgid) permissions set, which is required for the privilege escalation to succeed
  4. Verify binary ownership and permissions
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/cu' and check that the binary is owned by root and not writable by non-root users
    Affected if The binary is owned by root and world-writable or group-writable, allowing modification

The system is affected if it runs SunOS/Solaris 2.8 or earlier, contains /usr/bin/cu, and that binary has setuid/setgid permissions enabled.

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.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.8
Interim mitigation

Apply vendor patches for this vulnerability from Oracle/Sun; as interim measure, restrict execution permissions on /usr/bin/cu or monitor for suspicious argv[0] manipulation.

Fix this in Solaris Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,930
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,088.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2001-0190 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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