CVE-2003-0061
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow in passwd for HP UX B.10.20 allows local users to execute arbitrary commands with root privileges via a long LANG environment variable.
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 confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in the passwd utility on HP-UX B.10.20 allows local users to gain root privileges by passing an overly long string through the LANG environment variable, which triggers a buffer overflow and enables arbitrary command execution.
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= 10.20CVSS 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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Verify HP-UX version is B.10.20Run 'uname -a' or 'swlist -l product' to confirm the exact HP-UX release version. This vulnerability affects only HP-UX B.10.20.Affected if The reported version is HP-UX B.10.20 exactly. Other HP-UX versions are not affected by this CVE.
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Locate the passwd utilityRun 'which passwd' or 'ls -la /usr/bin/passwd' to find the passwd binary location.Affected if The passwd utility exists at the standard location.
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Check if passwd has setuid root permissionsRun 'ls -la /usr/bin/passwd' and examine the permissions field. Look for 's' in the owner execute position (e.g., '-r-sr-xr-x').Affected if The passwd binary is setuid root, which enables the privilege escalation path. Without setuid root, the buffer overflow cannot lead to root escalation.
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Verify the LANG environment variable is usedWhen passwd is executed, the vulnerability triggers through an overly long string passed via the LANG environment variable. Check if LANG can be set by users (echo $LANG).Affected if The LANG environment variable can be manipulated by local users when invoking passwd.
A system is affected if it runs HP-UX B.10.20 with a setuid root passwd binary that can be invoked with a manipulated LANG environment variable, allowing local privilege escalation to root.
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 vendor patches for this vulnerability; if patches are unavailable for this legacy HP-UX version, consider upgrading to a supported HP-UX release or implement compensating controls such as restricting local access to trusted users.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0061 — 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-2003-0061 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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