LinuxOperating system · Redhat

CVE-2003-0248

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2003-06-16
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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 mxcsr code in Linux kernel 2.4 allows attackers to modify CPU state registers via a malformed address.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.1= 7.2= 7.3= 8.0= 9.0

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
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

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.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.debian.org →
Recommended fix Moderate confidence

Linux kernel 2.6 or later (kernel 2.4 series reached end-of-life and no longer receives security updates)

  1. Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. Backup critical data and system configuration before kernel upgrade
  3. Obtain a fixed kernel version from your Linux distribution vendor that includes the mxcsr vulnerability fix
  4. For Debian systems, apply the update from DSA-311: apt-get update && apt-get upgrade kernel-image-2.4
  5. For Red Hat systems, apply updates from Red Hat Network for kernel version that addresses CVE-2003-0248
  6. Reboot system into the new kernel after upgrade is complete
  7. Verify the new kernel version is running and the vulnerability is mitigated by checking /proc/version
Caveat Kernel upgrade may require rebuilding third-party kernel modules; some legacy hardware drivers may not be compatible with newer kernels; config files may need adjustment

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

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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-2003-0248 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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