CVE-1999-1095: sort creates temporary files and follows symbolic links, which allows local users to modify arbitrary files...

Security readout for executives and security teams

This old local flaw let a user abuse how sort handled temporary files and symbolic links. If a privileged job such as updatedb used the vulnerable behavior, a local user could cause files writable by that job's account to be changed. The provided sources do not identify current affected products or fixes. Likely limited to legacy Unix-like environments with vulnerable sort behavior, especially where updatedb or similar scheduled utilities invoke sort under elevated privileges. The source bundle lists no modern affected product set, so current exposure must be confirmed against local OS vendor history and installed package versions. Treat as a legacy hygiene issue unless vulnerable systems are still in production. Prioritize systems with local multi-user access or privileged scheduled maintenance jobs, because impact can become serious when the vulnerable utility runs as root or another powerful account. Mitigation focus: Check operating-system vendor advisories for historical sort or updatedb fixes.; Upgrade legacy systems or core utilities to supported vendor-maintained versions.; Review scheduled updatedb-style jobs that run with elevated privileges..

Prepared

Jul 1, 2026, 09:01 UTC (UTC+00:00)

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.