Windows NtOperating system · Microsoft

CVE-1999-0077

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1995-01-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Predictable TCP sequence numbers allow spoofing.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

This vulnerability stems from early TCP/IP implementations that used predictable, incremental sequence numbers. Attackers could exploit this predictability to spoof TCP connections, potentially enabling session hijacking or man-in-the-middle attacks by guessing or calculating valid sequence numbers.

MitigationModern systems implement RFC 1948 random sequence number generation, which mitigates this vulnerability. Organizations should ensure all systems and network devices run current, supported software versions with up-to-date TCP/IP stacks.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Windows NtOperating system
Affected:= 4.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Partial
Integrity
None
Availability
None

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Windows NT version
    Run 'winver' from Start > Run, or check System in Control Panel to confirm the exact Windows version and build number
    Affected if The system is running any version of Windows NT 4.0 (all builds are affected)
  2. Confirm TCP/IP stack is loaded
    Open Network applet in Control Panel, go to Protocols tab, verify TCP/IP Protocol is bound to at least one network adapter
    Affected if TCP/IP protocol is installed and bound to a network adapter - this is required for the vulnerability to be exploitable
  3. Check for exposed TCP listening services
    Run 'netstat -an' from command prompt and review output for LISTENING states on any port
    Affected if The system has any TCP service listening on any port (these would be potential targets for sequence number guessing)
  4. Verify network exposure
    Determine if the affected NT 4.0 system has direct Internet exposure or is behind a properly configured firewall/NAT
    Affected if The NT 4.0 system with TCP/IP enabled is directly accessible from untrusted networks without firewall protection

A system is affected only if it is running Windows NT 4.0 with the TCP/IP protocol stack loaded and has TCP services exposed to a network where an attacker could attempt sequence number prediction.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Modern systems implement RFC 1948 random sequence number generation, which mitigates this vulnerability. Organizations should ensure all systems and network devices run current, supported software versions with up-to-date TCP/IP stacks.

Fix this in Windows Nt Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0077 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0077 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data