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Fencer Vulns
medium 4.6

CVE-2003-0102 json

Buffer overflow in tryelf() in readelf.c of the file command allows attackers to execute arbitrary code as the user running file, possibly…

published 2003-03-18 23 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2003-0098

cvss
4.6
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
2.0%
EPSS 2.0% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 80%
public exploits
2
Exploit-DB

Summary

Buffer overflow in tryelf() in readelf.c of the file command allows attackers to execute arbitrary code as the user running file, possibly via a large entity size value in an ELF header (elfhdr.e_shentsize).

Patch / fix

  • file Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 3.40-1.1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2003-0102

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2003-0102 updated

security flaw

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES version 2.1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS version 2.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2003:087
  • Red Hat Linux 6.2 Red Hat Linux 7.0 Red Hat Linux 7.1 Red Hat Linux 7.2 Red Hat Linux 7.3 Red Hat Linux 8.0
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2003:086
  • Red Hat Linux Advanced Workstation 2.1
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2003:087

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-22325)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

1.98% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 80% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-22325 File 3.x - Local Stack Overflow Code Execution (2) local, 2003-03-04
  • EDB-22324 File 3.x - Local Stack Overflow Code Execution (1) local, 2003-03-04
  • idefense.com http://www.idefense.com/advisory/03.04.03.txt referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 4.6 AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

References

Sources

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.