# CVE-1999-1468: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can gain root privileges by manipulating the IFS variable when rdist executes sendmail via popen.

- **Severity:** Medium 6.2 (`AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C`)
- **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:** 2 Apr 2003
- **Updated:** 1 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-9pmj-mqc2-hx2p

## What is CVE-1999-1468?

CVE-1999-1468 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sgi Irix, published on 2 Apr 2003. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

rdist in various UNIX systems uses popen to execute sendmail, which allows local users to gain root privileges by modifying the IFS (Internal Field Separator) variable.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-1999-1468?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Cray Unicos, Next Next, Sgi Irix, Sun Sunos.

## How do I fix CVE-1999-1468?

No fix has been published for CVE-1999-1468 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-1999-1468 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-1999-1468 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Sgi Irix

- [CVE-1999-0692](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0692/): Auth bypass in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2003-0028](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0028/): Integer overflow in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-1999-0041](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-0041/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.5)
- [CVE-2006-0177](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-0177/): Memory corruption in n/a (high 7.2)
- [CVE-2006-0178](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-0178/): Other in n/a (high 7.2)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-1999-1468 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-1999-1468 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Sgi Irix, published on 2 Apr 2003. 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-1999-1468 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Sgi Irix. 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-1999-1468/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1468/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-1999-1468
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-1999-1468
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-1999-1468

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-1999-1468/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.