Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-1999-0900 describes an old local privilege escalation issue in rpc.yppasswdd. A local user may be able to gain elevated privileges through a buffer overflow during MD5 password hash generation. The source bundle does not identify affected vendors, products, versions, CVSS, or a vendor fix.
Executive priority
Prioritize based on asset presence. If rpc.yppasswdd or NIS password services are still used on business systems, treat this as a legacy privilege-escalation risk requiring remediation planning.
Technical view
The CVE record states that rpc.yppasswdd contains a buffer overflow reachable during MD5 hash generation, allowing local privilege gain. No CWE, CVSS vector, affected CPEs, affected vendor list, patch details, or exploit maturity evidence are provided in the supplied sources.
Likely exposure
Exposure is most plausible on legacy Unix-like environments using rpc.yppasswdd or NIS password services. The supplied evidence does not identify specific affected operating systems, distributions, versions, or packages.
Exploitation context
The cited description supports local privilege escalation, not remote exploitation. KEV is false, and the supplied sources do not state active exploitation, public exploit use, or exploitation at scale.
Researcher notes
Evidence is sparse and old. The record supports a local buffer overflow in rpc.yppasswdd during MD5 hash generation, but does not provide affected product metadata, exploit details, patch references, or modern severity scoring.
Mitigation direction
- Check vendor OS guidance for rpc.yppasswdd and NIS password service advisories.
- Inventory systems running rpc.yppasswdd or legacy NIS password services.
- Remove or disable rpc.yppasswdd where it is not operationally required.
- Restrict local shell access on systems that still require the service.
- Prioritize retirement of unsupported legacy systems using NIS password infrastructure.
Validation and detection
- Confirm whether rpc.yppasswdd is installed, enabled, or reachable locally.
- Map each finding to OS vendor, package, and support status.
- Review vendor advisories for fixed versions or documented workarounds.
- Check privileged account changes and authentication logs for suspicious local activity.
- Verify compensating controls for local user access on affected hosts.
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-1999-0900 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-1999-0900CVE 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.