CVE-2003-0885
Status: ModifiedMedium (6.4)—
Xscreensaver 4.14 contains certain debugging code that should have been omitted, which causes Xscreensaver to create temporary files insecurely in the (1) apple2, (2) xanalogtv, and (3) pong screensavers, and allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack.
CVSS
- Version: 2.0
- Vector: AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P
- Base score: 6.4
Exploitation probability (EPSS)
- Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 1.33%
- Percentile among all scored CVEs: 70
- Score date: 10/5/2026
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System, FIRST) estimates how likely a vulnerability is to be exploited in the wild within 30 days. It complements CVSS (impact) and CISA KEV (confirmed exploitation).
Affected technologies (1)
CWEs
- NVD-CWE-Other
References
Raw JSON (NVD)
Show
{
"id": "CVE-2003-0885",
"cveTags": [],
"metrics": {
"cvssMetricV2": [
{
"type": "Primary",
"source": "nvd@nist.gov",
"cvssData": {
"version": "2.0",
"baseScore": 6.4,
"accessVector": "NETWORK",
"vectorString": "AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:P",
"authentication": "NONE",
"integrityImpact": "PARTIAL",
"accessComplexity": "LOW",
"availabilityImpact": "PARTIAL",
"confidentialityImpact": "NONE"
},
"acInsufInfo": false,
"impactScore": 4.9,
"baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
"obtainAllPrivilege": false,
"exploitabilityScore": 10,
"obtainUserPrivilege": false,
"obtainOtherPrivilege": false,
"userInteractionRequired": false
}
]
},
"affected": [
{
"source": "cve@mitre.org",
"affectedData": [
{
"vendor": "n/a",
"product": "n/a",
"versions": [
{
"status": "affected",
"version": "n/a"
}
]
}
]
}
],
"published": "2003-12-31T05:00:00.000",
"references": [
{
"url": "http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41253",
"tags": [
"Exploit",
"Patch",
"Vendor Advisory"
],
"source": "cve@mitre.org"
},
{
"url": "http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=182286",
"tags": [
"Vendor Advisory"
],
"source": "cve@mitre.org"
},
{
"url": "http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=41253",
"tags": [
"Exploit",
"Patch",
"Vendor Advisory"
],
"source": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"
},
{
"url": "http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=182286",
"tags": [
"Vendor Advisory"
],
"source": "af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"
}
],
"vulnStatus": "Modified",
"weaknesses": [
{
"type": "Primary",
"source": "nvd@nist.gov",
"description": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "NVD-CWE-Other"
}
]
}
],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "Xscreensaver 4.14 contains certain debugging code that should have been omitted, which causes Xscreensaver to create temporary files insecurely in the (1) apple2, (2) xanalogtv, and (3) pong screensavers, and allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack."
}
],
"lastModified": "2026-06-16T22:03:08.203",
"configurations": [
{
"nodes": [
{
"negate": false,
"cpeMatch": [
{
"criteria": "cpe:2.3:a:xscreensaver:xscreensaver:4.14:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"vulnerable": true,
"matchCriteriaId": "17F03388-1B06-467B-BFA8-6CAE540A2F07"
}
],
"operator": "OR"
}
]
}
],
"vendorComments": [
{
"comment": "This issue did not affect the versions of Xscreensaver as distributed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, 3, or 4.",
"lastModified": "2006-08-30T00:00:00",
"organization": "Red Hat"
}
],
"sourceIdentifier": "cve@mitre.org"
}