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, w…

published 1994-10-02 32 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-1999-1003

cvss: 6.2; version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.8%; EPSS 0.8% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 56%
public exploits: 1; Exploit-DB

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.

Patch / fix

links 1

securityfocus.com/bid/464 advisory

Timeline

1994-02-02 First public exploit (EDB-19351)
1994-10-02 Published

Exploit prediction

0.79% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 56% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

EDB-19351 SGI IRIX 5.2/5.3 - 'serial_ports' Local Privilege Escalation local, 1994-02-02
securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/464 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/930 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	2.0	6.2	AV:L/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

References

securityfocus.com /bid/464
vdb-entry, exploit, patch, vendor-advisory
securityfocus.com /archive/1/930
mailing-list, exploit, vendor-advisory
exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com /vulnerabilities/2111
vdb-entry

Sources

CVE List CVE-1999-1022
NVD CVE-1999-1022

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary