CVE-2004-1028
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 · uneditedUntrusted execution path vulnerability in chcod on AIX IBM 5.1.0, 5.2.0, and 5.3.0 allows local users to execute arbitrary programs by modifying the PATH environment variable to point to a malicious "grep" program, which is executed from chcod.
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 confidenceThe chcod command on AIX 5.1.0, 5.2.0, and 5.3.0 invokes the 'grep' program using a relative path rather than an absolute path. By modifying the PATH environment variable to include a directory containing a malicious executable named 'grep', a local attacker can cause chcod to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running chcod.
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= 5.1= 5.1l= 5.2= 5.2.2= 5.2_l= 5.3= 5.3_lCVSS 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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Check AIX versionRun 'oslevel -r' to display the installed AIX versionAffected if The version output shows 5.1, 5.2, or 5.3 (any 5xxx release)
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Verify chcod command existsRun 'which chcod' or 'ls -la /usr/bin/chcod' to locate the chcod binaryAffected if The chcod command exists on the system (otherwise the vulnerability does not apply)
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Examine chcod for relative grep invocationRun 'strings /usr/bin/chcod | grep -E "^grep$"' or 'strings /usr/bin/chcod' and look for 'grep' without a leading slashAffected if The binary contains the string 'grep' without an absolute path (e.g., '/usr/bin/grep' not found, but 'grep' alone is present)
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Check PATH environment for vulnerabilityRun 'echo $PATH' to view the current PATH. Then run 'env | grep PATH' to see PATH in current environmentAffected if PATH contains writable directories (such as '.' or user-controlled directories) that could contain a malicious grep executable
A system is affected if it runs AIX 5.1/5.2/5.3, has the chcod command present, and chcod invokes grep via a relative path rather than an absolute path, making it vulnerable to PATH manipulation attacks.
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 dataModify chcod to use absolute paths (e.g., /usr/bin/grep) for all external command invocations instead of relying on the PATH environment variable. Alternatively, audit and restrict PATH for processes running with elevated privileges.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA3.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2004-1028 — 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-2004-1028 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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