dbcve.org
Wu FtpdApplication · Redhat

CVE-2003-0466

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2003-08-27
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 5.0 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
High EPSS Public exploit 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
Off-by-one error in the fb_realpath() function, as derived from the realpath function in BSD, may allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, as demonstrated in wu-ftpd 2.5.0 through 2.6.2 via commands that cause pathnames of length MAXPATHLEN+1 to trigger a buffer overflow, including (1) STOR, (2) RETR, (3) APPE, (4) DELE, (5) MKD, (6) RMD, (7) STOU, or (8) RNTO.

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
Wu FtpdApplication
Affected:= 2.6.1-16
FreeBSDOperating system
Affected:>= 4.0, <= 5.0
Wu FtpdApplication
Affected:>= 2.5.0, <= 2.6.2
Mac Os XOperating system
Affected:= 10.2.6
Mac Os X ServerOperating system
Affected:= 10.2.6
NetbsdOperating system
Affected:>= 1.5, <= 1.6.1
OpenBSDOperating system
Affected:>= 2.0, <= 3.3
SolarisOperating system
Affected:= 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
Privileges
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 5.0
Vendor patch www.securityfocus.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

For wu-ftpd: migrate to vsftpd or ProFTPD (wu-ftpd is unmaintained). For OS-specific: FreeBSD 5.1+, NetBSD 1.6.2+, OpenBSD 3.4+, or later OS versions with vendor security patches applied

  1. 1. Identify the affected FTP server daemon running on the system (likely wu-ftpd)
  2. 2. For Wu-ftpd: Check if the vendor/OS has released an updated package that addresses the off-by-one in fb_realpath()
  3. 3. For FreeBSD: Update to FreeBSD 5.1 or later which contains the security fix
  4. 4. For NetBSD: Update to NetBSD 1.6.2 or later which contains the patched realpath implementation
  5. 5. For OpenBSD: Update to OpenBSD 3.4 or later which includes the security fix
  6. 6. For Solaris: Apply Sun patch for this vulnerability or migrate to a supported FTP server
  7. 7. For Mac OS X 10.2.6: Apply Apple Security Update or upgrade to a later macOS version
  8. 8. After patching, verify the FTP server version and test with pathnames of MAXPATHLEN+1 to confirm remediation
Caveat Upgrading underlying OS versions to receive patches may introduce compatibility changes; wu-ftpd is abandoned so migration to vsftpd or ProFTPD is recommended for ongoing security support

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

We can identify the exact fixed release, upgrade, and verify it in staging — typical engagement from $2,300. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0466 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2003-0466 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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