# CVE-2003-0359: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can gain privileges by replacing insecure setgid binaries in Nethack with malicious code.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.6 (`AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/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:** Yes
- **Published:** 18 Jun 2003
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2003-0359, GHSA-2932-f892-c8hc

## What is CVE-2003-0359?

CVE-2003-0359 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Jun 2003. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

nethack 3.4.0 and earlier installs certain setgid binaries with insecure permissions, which allows local users to gain privileges by replacing the original binaries with malicious code.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2003-0359?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Stichting Mathematisch Centrum Nethack.

## How do I fix CVE-2003-0359?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2003-0359 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2003-0359 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2003-0359 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2003-0359 is a medium-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 18 Jun 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-2003-0359 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2003-0359/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0359/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2003-0359
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2003-0359
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2003-0359

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0359/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.