# CVE-2002-0572: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can escalate privileges or access restricted files by manipulating standard file descriptors in setuid processes on FreeBSD.

- **Severity:** High 7.2 (`AV:L/AC:L/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:** 11 Jun 2002
- **Updated:** 8 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-ch5f-274q-4xg7

## What is CVE-2002-0572?

CVE-2002-0572 is a high-severity vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 11 Jun 2002. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

FreeBSD 4.5 and earlier, and possibly other BSD-based operating systems, allows local users to write to or read from restricted files by closing the file descriptors 0 (standard input), 1 (standard output), or 2 (standard error), which may then be reused by a called setuid process that intended to perform I/O on normal files.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2002-0572?

It affects 4 products.


Products: Freebsd Freebsd, Openbsd Openbsd, Sun Solaris, Sun Sunos.

## How do I fix CVE-2002-0572?

No fix has been published for CVE-2002-0572 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2002-0572 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2002-0572 exists.

Public exploit code:

- Apple Mac OSX 10.x / FreeBSD 4.x / OpenBSD 2.x / Solaris 2.5/2.6/7.0/8 - 'exec C Library' Standard I/O File Descriptor Closure (exploitdb)

## Other vulnerabilities in Freebsd Freebsd

- [CVE-2018-17160](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2018-17160/): Memory corruption in FreeBSD (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2014-3954](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2014-3954/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2006-4304](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-4304/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2006-0226](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2006-0226/): Integer overflow in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2004-0002](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2004-0002/): Denial of service in n/a (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2002-0572 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2002-0572 is a high-severity vulnerability in Freebsd Freebsd, published on 11 Jun 2002. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2002-0572 exists.

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-2002-0572/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-0572/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2002-0572
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2002-0572
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2002-0572

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-0572/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.