LinuxOperating system · Gentoo
CVE-2004-0232
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 format string vulnerabilities in Midnight Commander (mc) before 4.6.0 may allow attackers to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code.
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 confidenceMultiple format string vulnerabilities in Midnight Commander (mc) versions before 4.6.0 allow attackers to potentially execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service by exploiting improper handling of user-supplied format strings in the application's input handling routines.
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
LinuxOperating system
= 0.5= 0.7= 1.1a= 1.2= 1.4= 4.5.40= 4.5.41= 4.5.42= 4.5.43= 4.5.44= 4.5.45= 4.5.46= 4.5.47= 4.5.48= 4.5.49= 4.5.50= 4.5.51= 2.3= 2.4all versions= 9.0= 9.1CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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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Verify Midnight Commander is installedRun 'which mc' or 'dpkg -l | grep mc' (Debian/Ubuntu), 'rpm -qa | grep mc' (RHEL/CentOS), or 'equery list mc' (Gentoo) to see if the mc package is present on the systemAffected if mc is not installed on the system - no further action needed for this CVE
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Determine the installed mc version numberRun 'mc --version' or 'mc -V' to display the Midnight Commander version. If that fails, check the package manager: 'dpkg -s mc' (Debian), 'rpm -qi mc' (RPM-based), or 'equery list -v mc' (Gentoo)Affected if Unable to determine the version - treat as potentially affected until version is confirmed
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Compare version against affected rangesCheck if the installed version matches any of these affected versions: 0.5, 0.7, 1.1a, 1.2, 1.4 (Gentoo), 4.5.40 through 4.5.51 (all 4.5.x versions listed), or 2.3/2.4 (SGI Propack). Also treat any version before 4.6.0 as affected if the exact version is not explicitly listed aboveAffected if Installed version is 4.5.40, 4.5.41, 4.5.42, 4.5.43, 4.5.44, 4.5.45, 4.5.46, 4.5.47, 4.5.48, 4.5.49, 4.5.50, 4.5.51, or any version before 4.6.0 from the listed distributions
You are affected if Midnight Commander is installed and its version is 4.5.x (specifically 4.5.40 through 4.5.51) or earlier, or matches the specific Gentoo (0.5, 0.7, 1.1a, 1.2, 1.4), SGI Propack (2.3, 2.4), or Slackware versions listed in the affected products.
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 Midnight Commander to version 4.6.0 or later to obtain the vendor patch that addresses the format string vulnerabilities.
Fix this in Linux
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,512.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2004-0232 — 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-2004-0232 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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- 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
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