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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2007-4004

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2007-07-26
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
Buffer overflow in the ftp client in IBM AIX 5.3 SP6 and 5.2.0 allows local users to execute arbitrary code via unspecified vectors that trigger the overflow in a gets function call. NOTE: the client is setuid root on AIX, so this issue crosses privilege boundaries.

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

Buffer overflow in IBM AIX's setuid root ftp client allows local users to execute arbitrary code with root privileges. The vulnerability stems from an unbounded gets() function call that doesn't perform buffer length checking, enabling a local attacker to overflow the buffer and inject malicious code with elevated privileges.

MitigationRemove the setuid bit from the ftp client binary (chmod -s /usr/bin/ftp) or apply IBM AIX security patches for APAR IZ00378 to eliminate this local privilege escalation vector.

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
AixOperating system
Affected:= 5.2.0= 5.3

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. Check AIX version
    Run 'oslevel -r' or 'bootinfo -r' to determine the installed AIX version
    Affected if The version is 5.2.0 or 5.3 (any TL/ML within these releases)
  2. Locate the ftp client binary
    Verify the path /usr/bin/ftp exists using 'ls -la /usr/bin/ftp'
    Affected if The ftp binary exists at this path
  3. Check for setuid root on ftp binary
    Run 'ls -la /usr/bin/ftp' and examine the permissions. Look for 's' in the owner execute field (e.g., -rwsr-xr-x)
    Affected if The ftp binary has the setuid bit set AND is owned by root (shows -rwsr-xr-x root bin ...)

A user is affected if running IBM AIX 5.2.0 or 5.3 with the /usr/bin/ftp binary that has the setuid bit enabled and is owned by root.

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

Remove the setuid bit from the ftp client binary (chmod -s /usr/bin/ftp) or apply IBM AIX security patches for APAR IZ00378 to eliminate this local privilege escalation vector.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2007-4004 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