What is CVE-1999-1386?

CVE-1999-1386 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Perl, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 1999-12-31.

How severe is CVE-1999-1386?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Perl

CVE-1999-1386

Perl 5.004_04 and earlier follows symbolic links when running with the -e option, which allows local users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on the /tmp/perl-eaXXXXX file.

Published 1999-12-31 · last modified 2026-06-16.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.005 (37.3th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 37th percentile — 37.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: -0.000

Affected products

Perl

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access

References

www.redhat.com/support/errata/rh50-errata-general.html (Broken Link)
marc.info/ (mailing-list, Exploit, Mailing List)
www.iss.net/security_center/static/7243.php (vdb-entry, Broken Link)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-1999-1386?: CVE-1999-1386 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Perl, classified under Improper Link Resolution Before File Access. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 1999-12-31.
How severe is CVE-1999-1386?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.