CVE-2003-0796
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 · uneditedUnknown vulnerability in rpc.mountd SGI IRIX 6.5.18 through 6.5.22 allows remote attackers to mount from unprivileged ports even with the -n option disabled.
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 · moderate confidenceA vulnerability in rpc.mountd on SGI IRIX versions 6.5.18 through 6.5.22 allows remote attackers to bypass the -n security option, which is intended to block mount requests from unprivileged ports. This enables unauthorized mounting of filesystems from untrusted, low-numbered ports, effectively circumventing the intended access control mechanism.
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= 6.5= 6.5.1= 6.5.2= 6.5.3= 6.5.4= 6.5.5= 6.5.6= 6.5.7= 6.5.8= 6.5.9= 6.5.10= 6.5.11CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify the IRIX versionRun 'uname -r' or check /etc/issue to determine the exact IRIX version numberAffected if The version is 6.5.18, 6.5.19, 6.5.20, 6.5.21, or 6.5.22 (or falls within this range)
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Confirm rpc.mountd is runningRun 'ps -ef | grep mountd' or use 'rpcinfo -p' to check if the mountd service is activeAffected if rpc.mountd process is running on the system
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Check if the -n option is configuredUse 'ps -ef | grep mountd' to view the full command line of rpc.mountd, looking for the -n flag in the argumentsAffected if The -n flag is present in the rpc.mountd command line (this is the security option that can be bypassed)
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Verify NFS server exports configurationCheck /etc/exports or run 'showmount -e' to see what filesystems are being exported via NFSAffected if NFS exports are configured and the system is acting as an NFS server
A system is affected if it runs SGI IRIX versions 6.5.18 through 6.5.22 with rpc.mountd active and the -n security option configured, as the flaw allows bypass of the port-based access control even when -n is enabled.
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 available SGI IRIX patches for this vulnerability; if patches are unavailable, consider upgrading to a supported OS version, restricting network access to mountd via firewall rules, or disabling rpc.mountd if not required.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0796 — 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-2003-0796 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
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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