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AixOperating system · Ibm

CVE-2013-5419

MEDIUM · 6.9 CVSS v2.0 Published 2013-10-04
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 buffer overflows in (1) mkque and (2) mkquedev in bos.rte.printers in IBM AIX 6.1 and 7.1 allow local users to gain privileges by leveraging printq group membership.

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 confidence

Buffer overflow vulnerabilities in mkque and mkquedev utilities within the bos.rte.printers component of IBM AIX 6.1 and 7.1 allow local users with printq group membership to escalate privileges by overflowing buffers in these print queue management tools.

MitigationApply the appropriate IBM AIX security patch (APAR) for this vulnerability; meanwhile, restrict printq group membership to only essential trusted personnel to reduce the attack surface until the patch can be deployed.

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:= 6.1= 7.1

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. Verify AIX version
    Run 'oslevel -s' or 'uname -a' to identify the installed AIX version
    Affected if The version is 6.1 or 7.1
  2. Confirm bos.rte.printers is installed
    Run 'lslpp -l bos.rte.printers' to check if the printers fileset is present
    Affected if The fileset is installed and the AIX version is 6.1 or 7.1
  3. Check for mkque utility
    Run 'which mkque' or 'ls -la /usr/sbin/mkque' to locate the mkque binary
    Affected if The mkque binary exists on the system
  4. Check for mkquedev utility
    Run 'which mkquedev' or 'ls -la /usr/sbin/mkquedev' to locate the mkquedev binary
    Affected if The mkquedev binary exists on the system
  5. Verify printq group membership
    Run 'id' or 'groups' to check if the current user is a member of the printq group
    Affected if The user has printq group membership and the vulnerable binaries exist

The environment is affected if AIX 6.1 or 7.1 is running with the bos.rte.printers component installed, and the mkque/mkquedev utilities exist for a user with printq group membership.

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 the appropriate IBM AIX security patch (APAR) for this vulnerability; meanwhile, restrict printq group membership to only essential trusted personnel to reduce the attack surface until the patch can be deployed.

Fix this in Aix Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2013-5419 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