Multiple buffer overflows in man-db 2.4.1 and earlier, when installed setuid, allow local users to gain privileges via (1) MANDATORY_MANPATH, MANPATH_MAP, and MANDB_MAP arguments to add_to_dirlist in manp.c, (2) a long pathname to ult_src in ult_src.c, (3) a long .so argument to test_for_include in ult_src.c, (4) a long MANPATH environment variable, or (5) a long PATH environment variable.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2003-0620 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.19%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: 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.
| EDB-ID | Source | Kind | Published | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22971 | exploit_db | edb | 2003-07-29 | Exploit-DB ↗ |
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 | 2025-03-17 | 0.04% | 0.19% | +0.15% |
| 2 | 2023-03-07 | 1.76% | 0.04% | -1.72% |
| 3 | 2022-02-04 | — | 1.76% | — |
Full EPSS history (3 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 | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
debian
|
not yet assigned | CVE-2003-0620 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (man-db), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. | https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2003-0620 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| andries_brouwer | man | 2.3.18 | cpe:2.3:a:andries_brouwer:man:2.3.18:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| andries_brouwer | man | 2.3.19 | cpe:2.3:a:andries_brouwer:man:2.3.19:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| andries_brouwer | man | 2.3.20 | cpe:2.3:a:andries_brouwer:man:2.3.20:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| andries_brouwer | man | 2.4 | cpe:2.3:a:andries_brouwer:man:2.4:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
| andries_brouwer | man | 2.4.1 | cpe:2.3:a:andries_brouwer:man:2.4.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |