CVE-2003-1538

susehelp in SuSE Linux 8.1, Enterprise Server 8, Office Server, and Openexchange Server 4 does not properly filter shell metacharacters, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via CGI queries.

Published: 2003-12-31 Last update: 2026-04-16 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2003-1538 is rated Moderate Risk (46.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.45%). Mandatory action: Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2003-1538

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 0.71% 0.45% -0.26%
2 2025-03-29 0.45% 0.71% +0.26%
3 2025-03-17 0.45%

Full EPSS history (12 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2003-1538

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.4 2.0 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
Authentication (AU:N)
No authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:P)
Partial integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
10.0 4.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2003-1538

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2003-1538

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
suse suse_linux_openexchange_server 4.0 cpe:2.3:a:suse:suse_linux_openexchange_server:4.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse office_server cpe:2.3:o:suse:office_server:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
suse suse_linux 8 cpe:2.3:o:suse:suse_linux:8:*:enterprise_server:*:*:*:*:*
suse suse_linux 8.1 cpe:2.3:o:suse:suse_linux:8.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2003-1538

cvelogic Threat Intelligence