CVE-2017-6903

In ioquake3 before 2017-03-14, the auto-downloading feature has insufficient content restrictions. This also affects Quake III Arena, OpenArena, OpenJK, iortcw, and other id Tech 3 (aka Quake 3 engine) forks. A malicious auto-downloaded file can trigger loading of crafted auto-downloaded files as native code DLLs. A malicious auto-downloaded file can contain configuration defaults that override the user's. Executable bytecode in a malicious auto-downloaded file can set configuration variables to values that will result in unwanted native code DLLs being loaded, resulting in sandbox escape.

Published: 2017-03-14 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-6903 is rated Moderate Risk (40.6/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). 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-2017-6903

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 0.21% 0.12% -0.09%
2 2025-03-29 0.12% 0.21% +0.09%
3 2025-03-17 — 0.12% —

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-6903

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.0 HIGH
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
9.3 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
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.
 8.6 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-6903

OS Trackers for CVE-2017-6903

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2017-6903 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (ioquake3, iortcw), 10 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 10. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2017-6903
ubuntu medium CVE-2017-6903 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (ioquake3, openarena), 46 status rows across 23 suites (artful, bionic, cosmic, disco, eoan, focal, groovy, hirsute, impish, jammy, kinetic, lunar, mantic, noble, oracular, plucky, precise, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 32, ignored 9, DNE 2, needed 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2017-6903

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-6903

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
ioquake3 ioquake3 <= 2017-02-27 cpe:2.3:a:ioquake3:ioquake3:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-6903

URL Tags
http://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3812
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=857699 Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/JACoders/OpenJK/commit/8956a35e7b91c4a0dd1fa6db1d28c7f0efbab2d7 Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/376267d534476a875d8b9228149c4ee18b74a4fd Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/b173ac05993f634a42be3d3535e1b158de0c3372 Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/ioquake/ioq3/commit/f61fe5f6a0419ef4a88d46a128052f2e8352e85d Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/11a83410153756ae350a82ed41b08d128ff7f998 Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/b248763e4878ef12d5835ece6600be8334f67da1 Issue Tracking Patch
https://github.com/iortcw/iortcw/commit/b6ff2bcb1e4e6976d61e316175c6d7c99860fe20 Issue Tracking Patch
https://ioquake3.org/2017/03/13/important-security-update-please-update-ioquake3-immediately/ Vendor Advisory
cvelogic Threat Intelligence