Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
A Sun Microsystems installation script for Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) saved a password in plain text inside a file that anyone on the system could read. That means any local user of the machine could open the file and see the password. This is a legacy issue from around 2000 affecting long-obsolete Sun software and is unlikely to be present in modern environments.
Executive priority
Low priority for modern environments. Only relevant if legacy Sun Solaris systems remain in production; in that case treat as part of a broader legacy decommissioning effort rather than an urgent patch cycle.
Technical view
During WBEM installation, the setup script wrote a credential to a world-readable file, exposing the password to any local account on the host. No CWE, CVSS, or affected product versions are recorded in the CVE entry, and no vendor patch is cited. Impact is local information disclosure of a service credential that could enable privilege escalation or lateral movement if the credential was reused elsewhere.
Likely exposure
Exposure is limited to legacy Sun Solaris hosts that ran the historical WBEM installer and were not reconfigured. Modern estates are unlikely to be affected. Any residual risk sits on unsupported systems where local users or attackers with a foothold could read the credential file.
Exploitation context
Not listed in CISA KEV and no public reports of active exploitation are cited in the source bundle. Exploitation requires local access to a vulnerable Sun WBEM install-era host and simple read access to the credential file. No exploit code or weaponization details are provided.
Researcher notes
CVE record is minimal: no CWE, CVSS, affected CPE, or patch reference. Published 2000-01-04, last updated 2024-08-01. Only reference is an IBM X-Force entry. Not in KEV. Treat as historical local credential exposure; validate by inspecting file permissions on legacy Sun WBEM installs if any still exist.
Mitigation direction
- Identify and retire any legacy Sun Solaris WBEM hosts still in service.
- Rotate any credentials that may have been reused from that era.
- Restrict local login to trusted administrators on any surviving legacy systems.
- Consult vendor (Oracle/Sun) historical guidance for WBEM hardening if a system must remain.
- Move managed workloads off unsupported platforms to a supported management stack.
Validation and detection
- Inventory Solaris hosts and confirm whether WBEM was ever installed.
- Check filesystem permissions on WBEM installation artifacts and configuration files for world-readable credentials.
- Search installer logs and config files for cleartext password strings.
- Review local account list on legacy hosts to gauge who could have read the file.
- Confirm current management tooling has replaced legacy WBEM services.
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.
Credential and access behavior lookup
The CVE wording references authentication or credential exposure, so valid-account and credential-access review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.
Open ATT&CK lookupCVE-1999-0982 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-1999-0982CVE 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.