dbcve.org
Suse LinuxOperating system · Novell

CVE-2005-4790

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2005-12-31
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
74/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
No privileges Zero-click

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
Multiple untrusted search path vulnerabilities in SUSE Linux 9.3 and 10.0, and possibly other distributions, cause the working directory to be added to LD_LIBRARY_PATH, which might allow local users to execute arbitrary code via (1) beagle, (2) tomboy, or (3) blam. NOTE: in August 2007, the tomboy vector was reported for other distributions.

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 confidence

This vulnerability stems from applications (beagle, tomboy, blam) adding the current working directory (.) to LD_LIBRARY_PATH, allowing local attackers to place malicious shared libraries that get loaded instead of legitimate system libraries, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution.

MitigationApply vendor patches for the affected applications, upgrade to patched versions of SUSE Linux or later distributions, or ensure LD_LIBRARY_PATH explicitly excludes the working directory by configuring system-wide library paths properly.

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
Suse LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.0
Suse LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 9.3

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
Local
Complexity
M
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:L/AC:M/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify if affected applications are installed
    Check for the presence of beagle, tomboy, or blam applications on the system using package managers or file system searches
    Affected if Any of these three applications (beagle, tomboy, blam) are installed on SUSE Linux 9.3 or 10.0
  2. Inspect LD_LIBRARY_PATH for current working directory reference
    Run the affected applications and examine their process environment variables, specifically LD_LIBRARY_PATH, for the presence of '.' (dot) which represents the current working directory
    Affected if LD_LIBRARY_PATH contains '.' or ':.' or '.:' indicating the current working directory is in the library search path
  3. Review application startup scripts or configuration
    Examine the application's launch scripts, wrapper scripts, or desktop entry files to see if they explicitly set or append to LD_LIBRARY_PATH with the current directory
    Affected if Startup scripts or configurations modify LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the current working directory
  4. Check running processes for the vulnerability condition
    Use process inspection tools (ps, /proc) to examine the environment of running beagle, tomboy, or blam processes and verify their LD_LIBRARY_PATH settings
    Affected if Any affected application process has LD_LIBRARY_PATH including the current working directory

The environment is affected if any of the three vulnerable applications (beagle, tomboy, blam) are installed on SUSE Linux 9.3 or 10.0 and their process environment includes the current working directory (.) in LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply vendor patches for the affected applications, upgrade to patched versions of SUSE Linux or later distributions, or ensure LD_LIBRARY_PATH explicitly excludes the working directory by configuring system-wide library paths properly.

Fix this in Suse Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,800
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-2005-4790 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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