# CVE-1999-0703: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local users can manipulate flags on character and block devices, potentially leading to privilege escalation on affected Unix systems.

- **Severity:** Low 3.6 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 4 Jan 2000
- **Updated:** 1 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-r2hm-7w9p-5qrc

## What is CVE-1999-0703?

CVE-1999-0703 is a low-severity vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 4 Jan 2000. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

OpenBSD, BSDI, and other Unix operating systems allow users to set chflags and fchflags on character and block devices.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-1999-0703?

It affects 3 products.


Products: Bsdi Bsd Os, Freebsd Freebsd, Openbsd Openbsd.

## How do I fix CVE-1999-0703?

No fix has been published for CVE-1999-0703 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-1999-0703 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-1999-0703 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Freebsd Freebsd

- [CVE-1999-0323](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0323/): Security feature bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0165](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0165/): NFS cache poisoning. (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0798](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0798/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0879](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0879/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-1999-0002](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0002/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-1999-0703 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-1999-0703 is a low-severity vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 4 Jan 2000. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-1999-0703 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Freebsd Freebsd. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0703/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0703/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-1999-0703
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-1999-0703
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-1999-0703

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0703/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.