Off-by-one error in the fb_realpath() function, as derived from the realpath function in BSD, may allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, as demonstrated in wu-ftpd 2.5.0 through 2.6.2 via commands that cause pathnames of length MAXPATHLEN+1 to trigger a buffer overflow, including (1) STOR, (2) RETR, (3) APPE, (4) DELE, (5) MKD, (6) RMD, (7) STOU, or (8) RNTO.
CVE-2003-0466
This critical-severity CVE scores 9.8 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 78.1%, top 0% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).
- High exploitation likelihood — EPSS 78%
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 9.8
- EG Score
- 9.8(medium)
- EG Risk
- 80(Track*)
- EPSS
- 99.5%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
August 27, 2003
Last Modified
June 16, 2026
Advisory Details (7)
Auto-updated Jun 23, 2026'Off-by-one Buffer Overflow Vulnerability in BSD libc realpath(3)' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106002488209129&w=2'wu-ftpd-2.6.2 off-by-one remote exploit.' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106001702232325&w=2'FreeBSD Security Advisory FreeBSD-SA-03:08.realpath' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106001410028809&w=2'wu-ftpd fb_realpath() off-by-one bug' - MARC
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=105967301604815&w=2Patch Availability(2)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | patch | 2003-07-31 | redhat |
| redhat | patch | 2003-07-31 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
All Vendor Advisories
(2)
Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 4× in last 7d / 12× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
- 2026-07-23 00:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 23:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 21:30 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-20 17:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:22 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:09 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-29 14:02 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-28 04:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-18 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-16 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-15 17:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-13 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-12 23:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-10 22:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-07 15:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-05 22:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-02 20:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-01 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-31 00:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-28 13:42 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-20 22:36 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-20 07:56 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-20 07:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-20 03:39 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-20 03:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 23:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 23:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 19:11 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 19:11 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 14:57 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 14:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 10:38 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 10:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 06:14 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 06:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-19 02:01 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-05-19 02:01 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-05-19 02:01 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-05-18 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-05-18 21:29 UTCEPSS rescore
Publicly available exploits
(5 references)Working exploit code is in the public domain (5 Exploit-DB entries). Defenders should treat patch urgency accordingly — public PoCs typically lead to mass-exploitation within 24-72 hours.
- Exploit-DBEDB-78✓ verifiedFirst seen Aug 11, 2003
WU-FTPD 2.6.2 - Remote Command Execution
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-22975✓ verifiedFirst seen Aug 6, 2003
WU-FTPD 2.6.0/2.6.1/2.6.2 - 'realpath()' Off-by-One Buffer Overflow
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-74✓ verifiedFirst seen Aug 3, 2003
WU-FTPD 2.6.2 - Off-by-One Remote Command Execution
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-22974✓ verifiedFirst seen Aug 2, 2003
WU-FTPD 2.6.2 - 'realpath()' Off-by-One Buffer Overflow
Open source ↗ - Exploit-DBEDB-22976✓ verifiedFirst seen Jul 31, 2003
FreeBSD 4.8 - 'realpath()' Off-by-One Buffer Overflow
Open source ↗
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2003-0466?
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What is the CVSS score of CVE-2003-0466?
How do I remediate CVE-2003-0466?
Dependency Blast Radius
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