Race condition in the recursive (1) directory deletion and (2) directory move in GNU File Utilities (fileutils) 4.1 and earlier allows local users to delete directories as the user running fileutils by moving a low-level directory to a higher level as it is being deleted, which causes fileutils to chdir to a ".." directory that is higher than expected, possibly up to the root file system.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2002-0435 is rated Low Risk (14/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.34%). Mandatory action: Low composite risk—no urgent action required; patch on your normal maintenance cycle and revisit priority if CVSS or EPSS increases.
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 | 0.07% | 0.34% | +0.26% |
| 2 | 2025-03-17 | 0.04% | 0.07% | +0.03% |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2 | 2.0 | LOW |
|
1.9 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
redhat
|
low | — | https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2002-0435 |
ubuntu
|
low | CVE-2002-0435 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (coreutils), 6 status rows across 6 suites (hardy, lucid, natty, oneiric, precise, upstream): not-affected 5, released 1. | https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2002-0435 |