CVE-2003-0333: Multiple buffer overflows in kermit in HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00 (C-Kermit 6.0.192 and possibly other versions...

Security readout for executives and security teams

This is an old local privilege-escalation issue in HP-UX kermit. A person who already has local access to an affected HP-UX host may be able to gain higher privileges by abusing buffer overflows in specific kermit command handling. Exposure is most likely on legacy HP-UX 10.20 or 11.00 systems where /usr/bin/kermit is installed and accessible to local users. The provided affected metadata is sparse, so version and permissions must be verified on each host. Treat this as high priority where legacy HP-UX remains in production, especially on shared systems. The risk depends on local access, but successful exploitation could turn a low-privileged account into a higher-privileged foothold. Mitigation focus: Identify HP-UX systems with kermit installed and locally accessible.; Check HP advisory HPSBUX0305-259 for vendor-approved patches or mitigation.; Prioritize patching or compensating controls on shared multi-user hosts..

Prepared

Jun 30, 2026, 10:42 UTC (UTC+00:00)

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