CVE-2003-0333
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 · uneditedMultiple buffer overflows in kermit in HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 (C-Kermit 6.0.192 and possibly other versions before 8.0) allow local users to gain privileges via long arguments to (1) ask, (2) askq, (3) define, (4) assign, and (5) getc, some of which may share the same underlying function "doask," a different vulnerability than CVE-2001-0085.
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 confidenceMultiple buffer overflow vulnerabilities exist in C-Kermit versions 6.0.192 and earlier on HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00. Local attackers can gain elevated privileges by supplying excessively long arguments to the ask, askq, define, assign, and getc commands, which all utilize the common 'doask' function. This is a local privilege escalation vulnerability with CVSS 7.2 indicating high impact.
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= 10.20= 11.00CVSS 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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Detect if C-Kermit is installedLocate the kermit binary on the system using 'which kermit' or 'find / -name kermit -type f 2>/dev/null'Affected if C-Kermit is found on the system and the kermit binary is executable by the user checking the system
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Check C-Kermit version numberRun 'kermit -V' or 'kermit --version' to display the installed version, then compare it to the affected range of 6.0.192 and earlierAffected if The installed version is 6.0.192 or any earlier version
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Verify HP-UX versionRun 'uname -r' or check /etc/issue to identify the operating system versionAffected if The system is running HP-UX 10.20 or HP-UX 11.00
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Identify accessible user contextDetermine which users can execute the kermit binary by checking file permissions with 'ls -la $(which kermit)' and reviewing /etc/group for group membershipsAffected if The kermit binary is executable by non-privileged users who could exploit the vulnerability to gain elevated privileges
A system is affected if it runs C-Kermit version 6.0.192 or earlier on HP-UX 10.20 or 11.00 and allows untrusted users to execute the kermit binary.
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 dataUpgrade to C-Kermit version 8.0 or later, or apply HP vendor patches if available. If immediate patching is not feasible, restrict execution of the kermit program to trusted users only to limit local attack surface.
- Consultation6.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0333 — 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-2003-0333 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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