Is CVE-2017-5899 in the CISA KEV catalog?

No. CVE-2017-5899 is not currently on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list.

What is the CVSS severity of CVE-2017-5899?

CVE-2017-5899 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.0 (HIGH).

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2017-5899?

CVE-2017-5899 has an EPSS score of 1.01% (59th percentile), estimating the probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.

How do I fix CVE-2017-5899?

Upgrade s-nail on debian 11 to 14.8.16-1 or later. Fixes are available for 3 affected products.

CVE & CISA-KEV Catalog

CVE-2017-5899

HIGH

7.0

CVSS v3

NVD

Description

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.

CWE-22Path Traversal CWE-362Race Condition

How to fix

Remediation Available

s-nailDebian

Fixed in:14.8.16-1CVE-2017-5899

heirloom-mailxUbuntu

Fixed in:14.8.6-1ubuntu0.1~esm1USN-4820-1

s-nailUbuntu

Fixed in:14.8.6-1ubuntu0.1~esm1USN-4820-1

Remediation is compiled from vendor and distribution security advisories. Always confirm against the linked source for your exact version and platform.

CVSS v3 Vector

Exploitability

Attack VectorLocal

Attack ComplexityHigh

Privileges RequiredLow

User InteractionNone

ScopeUnchanged

Impact

ConfidentialityHigh

IntegrityHigh

AvailabilityHigh

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploit Intelligence

1.01%probability of exploitation in 30 days

59thpercentile

Moderate risk: more likely to be exploited than 59% of all known CVEs.

References

Exploit1

openwall.com

Third-Party Advisory2

Other references1

mail-archive.com

Related Vulnerabilities

Other CWE-22 (Path Traversal) vulnerabilities, ordered by exploit likelihood. View all

CVE	Severity	CVSS	EPSS	Exploited	Fix
CVE-2024-23897	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2023-32315	High	8.6	100%	KEV	Fix
CVE-2022-29464	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	-
CVE-2021-26086	Medium	5.3	100%	KEV	Fix
CVE-2021-22005	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix
CVE-2020-5902	Critical	9.8	100%	KEV + Ransom	Fix

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This product uses NVD data but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS scores courtesy of FIRST.org (https://www.first.org/epss). Source: CISA KEV Catalog. Data as of 2026-05-13.