# CVE-2003-0489: Privilege escalation in n/a

> Local attackers can exploit a privilege dropping flaw in tcptraceroute to gain unauthorized access to packet capture descriptors.

- **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:** Yes
- **Published:** 28 Jun 2003
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2003-0489, DSA-330, GHSA-6xvj-44vj-vq8r

## What is CVE-2003-0489?

CVE-2003-0489 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 Jun 2003. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

tcptraceroute 1.4 and earlier does not fully drop privileges after obtaining a file descriptor for capturing packets, which may allow local users to gain access to the descriptor via a separate vulnerability in tcptraceroute.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2003-0489?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Michael C. Toren Tcptraceroute.

## How do I fix CVE-2003-0489?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2003-0489 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2003-0489 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2003-0489 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2003-0489 is a high-severity vulnerability in n/a, published on 28 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-2003-0489 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-2003-0489/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0489/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2003-0489
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2003-0489
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2003-0489

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0489/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.