CVE-2017-5899 — Directory traversal vulnerability in the setuid root helper binary in S-nail (la

Directory traversal vulnerability in the setuid root helper binary in S-nail (later S-mailx) before 14.8.16 allows local users to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain root privileges via a .. (dot dot) in the randstr argument.

01What is this vulnerability?

Directory traversal vulnerability in the setuid root helper binary in S-nail (later S-mailx) before 14.8.16 allows local users to write to arbitrary files and consequently gain root privileges via a .. (dot dot) in the randstr argument.

02Affected products

No structured affected-product list available — see references below for vendor advisories.

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2017-03-27T15:59:00.497
• Last modified: 2026-05-13T00:24:29.033

09References

• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/27/7
• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/02/07/4
• www.securityfocus.com — http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96138
• www.mail-archive.com — https://www.mail-archive.com/s-nail-users%40lists.sourceforge.net/msg00551.html
• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/01/27/7
• www.openwall.com — http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2017/02/07/4
• www.securityfocus.com — http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/96138
• www.mail-archive.com — https://www.mail-archive.com/s-nail-users%40lists.sourceforge.net/msg00551.html