CVE-1999-0421

Exp

During a reboot after an installation of Linux Slackware 3.6, a remote attacker can obtain root access by logging in to the root account without a password.

Published: 1999-03-17 Last update: 2026-04-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-1999-0421 is rated High Exploit Risk (62.8/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.35%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-1999-0421

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-1999-0421

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-03-30 0.36% 0.35% -0.01%
2 2025-03-29 0.35% 0.36% +0.01%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.35% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-1999-0421

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.2 2.0 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:L)
Requires local access to the target system.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:C)
Complete confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:C)
Complete integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:C)
Complete availability impact.
 3.9 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-1999-0421

OS Trackers for CVE-1999-0421

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-1999-0421: no source package rows; 0 state rows across 0 repos (none); fixed 0, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-1999-0421

Affected software / configurations for CVE-1999-0421

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
slackware slackware_linux 3.6 cpe:2.3:o:slackware:slackware_linux:3.6:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-1999-0421

URL Tags
http://www.osvdb.org/981
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/338 Exploit Patch Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence