Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
This is a legacy local privilege escalation issue in cfingerd. When the ALLOW_EXECUTION option is enabled, cfingerd may run user-requested programs without properly dropping privileges, letting a local user gain root privileges. The supplied sources do not identify affected versions or a vendor fix.
Executive priority
Prioritize investigation if legacy systems with local user access remain in production. The business risk is concentrated but serious: a local user could become root on an affected host.
Technical view
CVE-1999-0813 concerns cfingerd privilege handling during program execution enabled by ALLOW_EXECUTION. The flaw is local, not described as remote unauthenticated access. Impact is root privilege escalation on systems where cfingerd is present and configured with that feature enabled.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most likely on legacy Unix-like systems still running cfingerd with ALLOW_EXECUTION enabled. The source bundle lists affected vendor, product, and versions as unavailable, so inventory confirmation is required.
Exploitation context
The supplied sources describe local users gaining root privileges. KEV status is false, and the bundle provides no cited evidence of active exploitation, public exploit use, or exploitation at scale.
Researcher notes
Evidence is sparse. The CVE record provides no CVSS, CWE, affected version range, or patch details. Treat the ALLOW_EXECUTION condition as the key exposure gate and avoid assuming broader product impact.
Mitigation direction
- Inventory systems for cfingerd and confirm whether it is still required.
- Disable ALLOW_EXECUTION where operationally feasible.
- Restrict local shell accounts on any host running cfingerd.
- Check vendor or operating-system package guidance for version-specific fixes.
- Decommission or replace cfingerd on unsupported legacy systems.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether cfingerd is installed on legacy hosts.
- Review cfingerd configuration for ALLOW_EXECUTION being enabled.
- Verify which local users can interact with the service.
- Check package history for vendor-specific patches or backports.
- Document compensating controls for hosts that cannot be remediated.
Public sources used
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context
These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.
ATT&CK lookup starting points
Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.
CVE-1999-0813 mapping review
Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.
Open ATT&CK lookup- Severity
- Unknown
- CVSS
- Not scored
- Known Exploited
- No
- Published
CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5
These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.
CVSS and timeline data
No CVSS vectors or timeline events were available in the normalized CVE source material.
Source materials
- CVE List V5 sourceCVE List V5
- https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/CVE-1999-0813CVE reference · x_refsource_MISC
Products and packages named in the record
CWE details
CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.