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CVE-1999-1022: serial_ports administrative program in IRIX 4.x and 5.x trusts the user's PATH environmental variabl

Medium
VulnerabilityCVE-1999-1022cve-1999-1022
Published: Sun Oct 02 1994 (10/02/1994, 04:00:00 UTC)
Source: NVD
Vendor/Project: sgi
Product: irix

Description

serial_ports administrative program in IRIX 4.x and 5.x trusts the user's PATH environmental variable to find and execute the ls program, which allows local users to gain root privileges via a Trojan horse ls program.

AI-Powered Analysis

AILast updated: 07/02/2025, 02:10:15 UTC

Technical Analysis

CVE-1999-1022 is a local privilege escalation vulnerability found in the serial_ports administrative program of SGI's IRIX operating system versions 4.x, 5.2, and 5.3. The vulnerability arises because the serial_ports program trusts the user's PATH environment variable to locate and execute the 'ls' command. An attacker with local access can exploit this by placing a malicious Trojan horse 'ls' executable in a directory that appears earlier in the PATH. When serial_ports runs, it executes this malicious 'ls' program with elevated privileges, thereby granting the attacker root access. This type of vulnerability is a classic example of a PATH hijacking attack, where the program does not use an absolute path or sanitize the environment before executing external commands. The vulnerability was published in 1994 and has a CVSS v2 base score of 6.2, indicating a medium severity level. It requires local access, has high attack complexity, and does not require authentication. The impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability is complete compromise since root privileges can be obtained. No patches are available, and there are no known exploits in the wild, likely due to the age and niche use of the IRIX operating system.

Potential Impact

For European organizations, the direct impact of this vulnerability today is minimal due to the obsolescence of the IRIX operating system and its limited deployment in modern environments. However, organizations that still maintain legacy systems running IRIX 4.x or 5.x for specialized industrial, research, or historical purposes could be at risk. An attacker with local access could gain full root privileges, leading to complete system compromise, data theft, or disruption of critical services. This could be particularly damaging in sectors relying on legacy SGI hardware for high-performance computing or specialized applications. The vulnerability could also serve as a foothold for lateral movement within a network if the compromised system is connected to other critical infrastructure. Given the lack of patches, mitigation relies heavily on operational controls. The medium severity rating reflects the requirement for local access and high attack complexity, limiting the threat to insider attackers or those with physical or remote local access.

Mitigation Recommendations

Since no patches are available for this vulnerability, European organizations should focus on compensating controls. First, restrict local access to IRIX systems strictly to trusted administrators and users. Implement strong physical security controls to prevent unauthorized access. Use environment sanitization techniques or wrapper scripts that set a secure PATH before invoking the serial_ports program to prevent execution of malicious binaries. Consider replacing or isolating legacy IRIX systems from critical networks to reduce exposure. Employ monitoring and auditing of system calls and executed commands on IRIX hosts to detect anomalous behavior indicative of exploitation attempts. If possible, migrate critical workloads from IRIX to supported and actively maintained platforms to eliminate the risk. Additionally, educate administrators about the risks of environment variable manipulation and the importance of secure execution practices.

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Threat ID: 682ca32ab6fd31d6ed7de441

Added to database: 5/20/2025, 3:43:38 PM

Last enriched: 7/2/2025, 2:10:15 AM

Last updated: 7/28/2025, 2:07:02 PM

Views: 12

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