CVE-1999-0153
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 · uneditedWindows 95/NT out of band (OOB) data denial of service through NETBIOS port, aka WinNuke.
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 · high confidenceA denial of service vulnerability in Windows 95 and Windows NT where malformed out-of-band (OOB) data sent to NETBIOS ports (137-139) causes the affected system to crash (Blue Screen of Death). The attack exploits how Windows handles TCP urgent pointers in NETBIOS sessions.
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 dataall versionsall versionsall versions= 5.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify operating system versionCheck the system version using System Properties on Windows or run 'winmsd' on Windows NT/2000, or 'uname -a' on SCO OpenServerAffected if The system is running Windows 95, Windows NT (any version), Windows 2000 (any version), or SCO OpenServer version 5.0
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Verify NETBIOS service is enabledRun 'netstat -an' from command line and examine whether ports 137, 138, or 139 show a LISTENING state, or check Services/applet to confirm 'NetBIOS Helper' or 'NetBT' service is runningAffected if NETBIOS/NetBT service is running and ports 137-139 are open and listening
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Determine network exposure of NETBIOS portsScan the system from an external perspective using 'nmap -p 137-139 <target>' or review firewall rules to see if ports 137-139 are permitted through any perimeter filteringAffected if Ports 137-139 are reachable from untrusted network segments or the internet
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Check for vendor patchesReview installed Windows updates or compare the system against Microsoft security bulletins for CVE-1999-0153; on SCO OpenServer check for applicable vendor patchesAffected if The system has not received vendor-provided patches addressing this OOB vulnerability
A system is affected if it runs an unpatched Windows 95/NT/2000 or SCO OpenServer 5.0 with NETBIOS ports 137-139 exposed to the network.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataBlock incoming NETBIOS ports (137-139) at network firewalls/perimeters; apply Microsoft patches for Windows 95/NT or migrate to supported Windows versions.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0153 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-1999-0153 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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