Security readout for executives and security teams
Plain-English summary
CVE-2002-0040 is an old local privilege-risk issue in SGI IRIX 6.5.11 through 6.5.15f. A local user may be able to influence privileged applications into producing core dumps using the HOSTALIASES environment variable, potentially exposing sensitive data or enabling privilege gain.
Executive priority
Prioritize if the organization still operates SGI IRIX with multiple local users or sensitive workloads. For most organizations, this is a legacy asset hygiene issue rather than an urgent enterprise-wide emergency.
Technical view
The CVE describes a local issue where HOSTALIASES environment-variable handling can cause privileged applications on affected IRIX releases to dump core. The record states this might allow privilege escalation. No CVSS score, CWE, patch details, or vendor advisory references are included in the provided sources.
Likely exposure
Exposure is likely limited to legacy SGI IRIX systems running versions 6.5.11 through 6.5.15f with local user access enabled. Modern environments are unlikely to be affected unless they retain historical IRIX hosts.
Exploitation context
The provided sources do not show active exploitation, public exploit availability, or CISA KEV listing. The described attack requires local user access, which lowers broad internet risk but matters on shared or poorly controlled legacy systems.
Researcher notes
Evidence is sparse. The CVE record provides the core description but no CVSS, CWE, patch reference, or detailed affected product metadata. Avoid assuming exploitability beyond local access and possible privilege gain stated in the CVE.
Mitigation direction
- Identify any SGI IRIX systems and confirm their exact 6.5 release level.
- Check SGI or trusted archival vendor guidance for available patches or workarounds.
- Limit local shell access to trusted users on affected legacy hosts.
- Reduce or retire affected IRIX systems where business use no longer justifies risk.
- Protect sensitive core dump files and review policies for privileged application dumps.
Validation and detection
- Inventory legacy UNIX assets for SGI IRIX 6.5.11 through 6.5.15f.
- Review whether untrusted local users can access affected systems.
- Check historical patch records against vendor or archival SGI advisories.
- Confirm core dump handling does not expose sensitive privileged application data.
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-2002-0040 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
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.