VDB-14884 · CVE-1999-1540 · XFDB 3356

Cactus Software Shell-Lock Encryption missing encryption

CVSS Meta Temp Score CVSS is a standardized scoring system to determine possibilities of attacks. The Temp Score considers temporal factors like disclosure, exploit and countermeasures. The unique Meta Score calculates the average score of different sources to provide a normalized scoring system.	Current Exploit Price (≈) Our analysts are monitoring exploit markets and are in contact with vulnerability brokers. The range indicates the observed or calculated exploit price to be seen on exploit markets. A good indicator to understand the monetary effort required for and the popularity of an attack.	CTI Interest Score Our Cyber Threat Intelligence team is monitoring different web sites, mailing lists, exploit markets and social media networks. The CTI Interest Score identifies the interest of attackers and the security community for this specific vulnerability in real-time. A high score indicates an elevated risk to be targeted for this vulnerability.
4.0	$0-$5k	0.00

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, was found in Cactus Software Shell-Lock. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the component Encryption Handler. Executing a manipulation can lead to missing encryption. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-1999-1540. There is no exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Cactus Software Shell-Lock (affected version not known). It has been declared as problematic. This vulnerability affects some unknown functionality of the component Encryption Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a missing encryption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-311. The product does not encrypt sensitive or critical information before storage or transmission. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

shell-lock in Cactus Software Shell Lock uses weak encryption (trivial encoding) which allows attackers to easily decrypt and obtain the source code.

The weakness was shared 10/04/1999 as not defined posting (Bugtraq). The advisory is shared for download at marc.theaimsgroup.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-1999-1540. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1600.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at X-Force (3356). Additional details are provided at atstake.com. The entry VDB-14885 is related to this item. Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

Cactus Software

Name

Shell-Lock

CPE 2.3info

🔍

CPE 2.2info

🔍

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 4.0
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 4.0

VulDB Base Score: 4.0
VulDB Temp Score: 4.0
VulDB Vector: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔍
VulDB Temp Score: 🔍
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

NVD Base Score: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Missing encryption
CWE: CWE-311 / CWE-310
CAPEC: 🔍
ATT&CK: 🔍

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: No

Availability: 🔍
Status: Not defined

EPSS Score: 🔍
EPSS Percentile: 🔍

Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔍

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: no mitigation known
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔍

Timelineinfo

10/04/1999 🔍
10/04/1999 +0 days 🔍
06/21/2014 +5374 days 🔍
04/19/2026 +4320 days 🔍

Sourcesinfo

Advisory: marc.theaimsgroup.com
Status: Not defined

CVE: CVE-1999-1540 (🔍)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-1999-1540
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-14884
X-Force: 3356 - Cactus shell-lock program allows users to retrieve original shell code

Misc.: 🔍
See also: 🔍

Entryinfo

Created: 06/22/2014 01:47
Updated: 04/19/2026 12:30
Changes: 06/22/2014 01:47 (40), 04/04/2019 20:16 (11), 04/19/2026 12:30 (16)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103