Some functions that implement the locale subsystem on Unix do not properly cleanse user-injected format strings, which allows local attackers to execute arbitrary commands via functions such as gettext and catopen.
rcp on various Linux systems including Red Hat 4.0 allows a "nobody" user or other user with UID of 65535 to overwrite arbitrary files, since 65535 is interpreted as -1 by chown and other system calls, which causes the calls to fail to modify the ownership of the file.
Xpdf, as used in products such as gpdf, kpdf, pdftohtml, poppler, teTeX, CUPS, libextractor, and others, allows attackers to cause a denial of service (infinite loop) via streams that end prematurely, as demonstrated using the (1) CCITTFaxDecode and (2) DCTDecode streams, aka "Infinite CPU spins."
Buffer overflows in wuarchive ftpd (wu-ftpd) and ProFTPD lead to remote root access, a.k.a. palmetto.
Buffer overflow in telnet daemon tgetent routing allows remote attackers to gain root access via the TERMCAP environmental variable.
Buffer overflow in the MSN protocol handler for gaim 0.79 to 1.0.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (application crash) and possibly execute arbitrary code via an "unexpected sequence of MSNSLP messages" that results in an unbounded copy operation that writes to the wrong buffer.
A "stack overwrite" vulnerability in GnuPG (gpg) 1.x before 1.4.6, 2.x before 2.0.2, and 1.9.0 through 1.9.95 allows attackers to execute arbitrary code via crafted OpenPGP packets that cause GnuPG to dereference a function pointer from deallocated stack memory.
Multiple buffer overflows in Midnight Commander (mc) before 4.6.0 may allow attackers to cause a denial of service or execute arbitrary code.
Slackware 14.0 and 14.1, and Slackware LLVM 3.0-i486-2 and 3.3-i486-2, contain world-writable permissions on the /tmp directory which could allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
Unspecified vulnerability in rsync before 3.0.0pre6, when running a writable rsync daemon, allows remote attackers to bypass exclude, excludefrom, and filter and read or write hidden files via (1) symlink, (2) partial-dir, (3) backup-dir, and unspecified (4) dest options.
rsync before 3.0.0pre6, when running a writable rsync daemon that is not using chroot, allows remote attackers to access restricted files via unknown vectors that cause rsync to create a symlink that points outside of the module's hierarchy.
Buffer overflow in the gettag function in modinclude for Apache 1.3.x to 1.3.32 allows local users who can create SSI documents to execute arbitrary code as the apache user via SSI (XSSI) documents that trigger a length calculation error.
Slackware 13.1, 13.37, 14.0 and 14.1 contain world-writable permissions on the iodbctest and iodbctestw programs within the libiodbc package, which could allow local users to use RPATH information to execute arbitrary code with root privileges.
openvpnserv.exe (aka the interactive service helper) in OpenVPN 2.4.x before 2.4.6 allows a local attacker to cause a double-free of memory by sending a malformed request to the interactive service. This could cause a denial-of-service through memory corruption or possibly have unspecified other impact including privilege escalation.
Heap-based buffer overflow in rsync before 2.5.7, when running in server mode, allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code and possibly escape the chroot jail.
rc.M in Slackware 9.0 calls quotacheck with the -M option, which causes the filesystem to be remounted and possibly reset security-relevant mount flags such as nosuid, nodev, and noexec.
ypbind with -ypset and -ypsetme options activated in Linux Slackware and SunOS allows local and remote attackers to overwrite files via a .. (dot dot) attack.
Remote attackers can access mail files via POP3 in some Linux systems that are using shadow passwords.
Buffer overflow in NLS (Natural Language Service).
CVS server before 1.11.10 may allow attackers to cause the CVS server to create directories and files in the file system root directory via malformed module requests.
Last updated 25 August 2025
Heap corruption vulnerability in the "at" program allows local users to execute arbitrary code via a malformed execution time, which causes at to free the same memory twice.
GNU locate in findutils 4.1 on Slackware 7.1 and 8.0 allows local users to gain privileges via an old formatted filename database (locatedb) that contains an entry with an out-of-range offset, which causes locate to write to arbitrary process memory.
Kernel logging daemon (klogd) in Linux does not properly cleanse user-injected format strings, which allows local users to gain root privileges by triggering malformed kernel messages.
Buffer overflow in fdmount on Linux systems allows local users in the "floppy" group to execute arbitrary commands via a long mountpoint parameter.
login in Slackware Linux 3.2 through 3.5 does not properly check for an error when the /etc/group file is missing, which prevents it from dropping privileges, causing it to assign root privileges to any local user who logs on to the server.
Buffer overflow in TestChip function in XFree86 SuperProbe in Slackware Linux 3.1 allows local users to gain root privileges via a long -nopr argument.
The default configuration of Slackware 3.4, and possibly other versions, includes . (dot, the current directory) in the PATH environmental variable, which could allow local users to create Trojan horse programs that are inadvertently executed by other users.
rxvt, when compiled with the PRINTPIPE option in various Linux operating systems including Linux Slackware 3.0 and RedHat 2.1, allows local users to gain root privileges by specifying a malicious program using the -print-pipe command line parameter.
sort creates temporary files and follows symbolic links, which allows local users to modify arbitrary files that are writable by the user running sort, as observed in updatedb and other programs that use sort.