CVE-2013-4559

high
Published 2013-11-20 · Modified 2026-04-29
CVSS v3
CVSS v2
7.6
VIR risk
7.6

Description

lighttpd before 1.4.33 does not check the return value of the (1) setuid, (2) setgid, or (3) setgroups functions, which might cause lighttpd to run as root if it is restarted and allows remote attackers to gain privileges, as demonstrated by multiple calls to the clone function that cause setuid to fail when the user process limit is reached.

Predictions

Exploit likelihood
20%
Patch ETA

Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.

Mitigations

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: debian — https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2013-4559

vendor Authored 2026-05-27

Vendor advisory: secalert@redhat.com — http://download.lighttpd.net/lighttpd/security/lighttpd_sa_2013_02.txt

OS impact

OSVersionStatusFixed in
debian debianbookwormfixed1.4.33-1+nmu1
debian debianbullseyefixed1.4.33-1+nmu1
debian debianforkyfixed1.4.33-1+nmu1
debian debiansidfixed1.4.33-1+nmu1
debian debiantrixiefixed1.4.33-1+nmu1
debian debian6.0affected
debian debian7.0affected
debian debian8.0affected
suse suse12.2affected
suse suse12.3affected
suse suse13.1affected

Application impact

VendorProductVersionsFixed
lighttpdlighttpd{"endExcluding":"1.4.33"}1.4.33

References

CWEs

CWE-264

Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.