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AtermApplication

CVE-2003-0067

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 2003-03-18
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable 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
The aterm terminal emulator 0.42 allows attackers to modify the window title via a certain character escape sequence and then insert it back to the command line in the user's terminal, e.g. when the user views a file containing the malicious sequence, which could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary 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 confidence

The aterm 0.42 terminal emulator is vulnerable to escape sequence injection where attackers can embed malicious character escape sequences in files that, when viewed by a user, modify the window title and subsequently inject arbitrary commands back into the terminal command line.

MitigationUpgrade aterm to a patched version or replace with a terminal emulator that properly sanitizes escape sequences and disables the feature allowing window titles to be pushed back to the command line.

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
AtermApplication
Affected:= 0.42

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
Partial
Availability
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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. Verify aterm is installed
    Run 'which aterm' or check your package manager for aterm
    Affected if aterm is present on the system
  2. Determine aterm version
    Run 'aterm --version' or check via package manager (e.g., 'rpm -q aterm' or 'dpkg -l aterm')
    Affected if version is 0.42 exactly
  3. Check for window title command injection feature
    Examine aterm configuration files (typically ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources) for the 'allowWindowOps' or 'ptyExec' setting related to window titles
    Affected if the feature allowing window title escape sequences to be pushed to the command line is enabled (set to true)

You are affected if aterm version 0.42 is installed and the window title-to-command-line feature is enabled in configuration, allowing escape sequences to inject commands.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Upgrade aterm to a patched version or replace with a terminal emulator that properly sanitizes escape sequences and disables the feature allowing window titles to be pushed back to the command line.

Fix this in Aterm Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-2003-0067 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