Buffer overflow in setiathome for SETI@home 3.03, if installed setuid, could allow local users to execute arbitrary code via long command line options (1) socks_server, (2) socks_user, and (3) socks_passwd. NOTE: since the default configuration of setiathome is not setuid, perhaps this issue should not be included in CVE.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2001-1553 is rated Low Risk (29.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.40%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
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 | 2026-06-15 | 0.09% | 0.40% | +0.31% |
| 2 | 2025-03-17 | 0.04% | 0.09% | +0.05% |
| 3 | 2023-03-07 | — | 0.04% | — |
Full EPSS history (4 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.6 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
3.9 | 6.4 | [email protected] |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| university_of_california | seti_at_home | 3.03 | cpe:2.3:a:university_of_california:seti_at_home:3.03:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/vuln-dev/2001-q4/0662.html | Vendor Advisory |