What is CVE-2017-6972?

CVE-2017-6972 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Alienvault Ossim, classified under Improper Check for Dropped Privileges. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-03-22.

How severe is CVE-2017-6972?

Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Alienvault Ossim

CVE-2017-6972

AlienVault USM and OSSIM before 5.3.7 and NfSen before 1.3.8 have an error in privilege dropping and unnecessarily execute the NfSen Perl code as root, aka AlienVault ID ENG-104945, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-6970 and CVE-2017-6971.

Published 2017-03-22 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.146 (96.5th percentile), scored 2026-09-29.

Moderate probability of exploitation in the next 30 days — watch for active exploitation reports. 97th percentile — 96.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.146 · newest: 0.146 · change: 0.000

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-273 — Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

References

sourceforge.net/p/nfsen/news/2017/01/nfsen-138-released---security-fix/ (Third Party Advisory)
www.securityfocus.com/bid/97016 (VDB Entry, Third Party Advisory, vdb-entry)
www.exploit-db.com/exploits/42314/ (exploit)
www.alienvault.com/forums/discussion/8698 (Vendor Advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2017-6972?: CVE-2017-6972 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Alienvault Ossim, classified under Improper Check for Dropped Privileges. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2017-03-22.
How severe is CVE-2017-6972?: Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.