CVE-2001-1080
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 · unediteddiagrpt in AIX 4.3.x and 5.1 uses the DIAGDATADIR environment variable to find and execute certain programs, which allows local users to gain privileges by modifying the variable to point to a Trojan horse program.
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 diagrpt utility in AIX 4.3.x and 5.1 trusts the DIAGDATADIR environment variable to locate and execute supporting programs. A local attacker can manipulate this environment variable to point to a malicious Trojan horse program, causing diagrpt to execute arbitrary 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= 4.3= 5.1CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm AIX versionRun 'oslevel' or 'uname -a' to verify the system is running AIX 4.3.x or 5.1Affected if The system is running AIX version 4.3.0 through 4.3.x or 5.1.0 through 5.1.x
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Locate the diagrpt binaryRun 'which diagrpt' or 'find /usr -name diagrpt -type f 2>/dev/null' to find the diagrpt executableAffected if The diagrpt binary exists on the system in a standard path such as /usr/bin/diagrpt or /usr/sbin/diagrpt
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Check diagrpt privilegesRun 'ls -la $(which diagrpt)' to examine the file permissions, specifically looking for setuid or setgid bitsAffected if diagrpt has the setuid (s) bit set, particularly owned by root, meaning it runs with elevated privileges
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Inspect DIAGDATADIR variableRun 'echo $DIAGDATADIR' to check if the environment variable is set, and examine diagrpt behavior with 'env DIAGDATADIR=/tmp diagrpt --help' if availableAffected if DIAGDATADIR can be set by any user and diagrpt uses this variable to locate supporting programs without validation
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Verify diagrpt execution contextRun 'whoami' before and after executing 'diagrpt' to confirm it runs with elevated privilegesAffected if diagrpt executes with root or elevated privileges while allowing user-controlled environment variables to dictate program locations
A system is affected if it runs AIX 4.3.x or 5.1 with the diagrpt utility installed and setuid to root, allowing unprivileged users to influence the DIAGDATADIR environment variable to execute arbitrary code.
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 the appropriate AIX patch from IBM for this vulnerability, or upgrade diagrpt to a patched version. As a compensating control, restrict local user access and monitor for unauthorized modifications to the DIAGDATADIR environment variable.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2001-1080 — 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-2001-1080 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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