CVE-2017-6972

Exp

AlienVault USM and OSSIM before 5.3.7 and NfSen before 1.3.8 have an error in privilege dropping and unnecessarily execute the NfSen Perl code as root, aka AlienVault ID ENG-104945, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-6970 and CVE-2017-6971.

Published: 2017-03-22 Last update: 2026-05-13 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2017-6972 is rated High Exploit Risk (85.6/100): CVSS Critical severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 19.06%, 95th percentile). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2017-6972

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
42314 exploit_db edb 2017-07-11 Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2017-6972

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 2026-01-15 20.93% 19.06% -1.87%
2 2025-11-21 44.19% 20.93% -23.26%
3 2025-11-18 — 44.19% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2017-6972

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.8 3.0 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
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.
 3.9 5.9 [email protected]
10.0 2.0 HIGH
AV:N/AC:L/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:L)
Exploitation conditions are straightforward and predictable.
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.
 10.0 10.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2017-6972

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2017-6972

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
alienvault ossim <= 5.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:alienvault:ossim:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
alienvault unified_security_management <= 5.3.6 cpe:2.3:a:alienvault:unified_security_management:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
nfsen nfsen <= 1.3.7 cpe:2.3:a:nfsen:nfsen:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2017-6972

cvelogic Threat Intelligence