dbcve.org
Windows 2000Operating system · Microsoft

CVE-1999-0535

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1997-01-01
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
A Windows NT account policy for passwords has inappropriate, security-critical settings, e.g. for password length, password age, or uniqueness.

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 confidence

Windows NT systems with CVE-1999-0535 have account password policies configured with insecure or missing settings. This includes absent or minimal password length requirements, no password age/expiration enforcement, and no password history/uniqueness requirements. Attackers can exploit these weaknesses through trivial brute-force attacks, credential stuffing, or password reuse to gain unauthorized access to accounts.

MitigationImplement a strong Windows NT account policy enforcing minimum 8+ character passwords, password expiration (30-90 days), password history (prevent reuse of last 5-10 passwords), and account lockout thresholds. Configure these settings via the Account Policy section in User Manager for Domains or local Security Policy.

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 2000Operating system
Affected:all versions
Windows NtOperating system
Affected:all versions

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
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

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

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. Open Account Policy configuration
    On the affected Windows NT or Windows 2000 system, launch User Manager (for standalone) or User Manager for Domains (for domain controllers). Navigate to the Policies menu and select Account Policy.
    Affected if The Account Policy window opens successfully, indicating the policy can be inspected.
  2. Check minimum password length
    Within the Account Policy window, locate the 'Minimum password length' setting. Record the configured value.
    Affected if The value is set to 0 (none) or is less than 8 characters, indicating an insecure password length policy.
  3. Check password age and expiration
    Within the Account Policy window, locate the 'Maximum password age' and/or 'Minimum password age' settings. Record the configured values.
    Affected if Maximum password age is set to 'None' or is greater than 90 days, indicating passwords do not expire or expire too infrequently.
  4. Check password history
    Within the Account Policy window, locate the 'Password history' setting. Record the configured value for how many previous passwords are remembered.
    Affected if The value is set to 0 or is less than 5, indicating previously used passwords can be reused.

The system is affected if any of these password policy settings are absent or set to weak values (minimum length under 8, no password expiration, password history disabled).

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.

dbcve · scoped
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement a strong Windows NT account policy enforcing minimum 8+ character passwords, password expiration (30-90 days), password history (prevent reuse of last 5-10 passwords), and account lockout thresholds. Configure these settings via the Account Policy section in User Manager for Domains or local Security Policy.

Recommended fix High confidence

Modern supported Windows operating system (Windows 10/11, Windows Server 2019/2022 or later)

  1. 1. Identify and document all Windows NT and Windows 2000 systems still in production
  2. 2. Plan migration of all affected systems to currently supported operating systems (Windows 10/11 or Windows Server 2019/2022)
  3. 3. Before migration, backup all critical data from legacy systems
  4. 4. Migrate applications and services to the new supported platform
  5. 5. Implement strong password policies on the new operating systems: enforce minimum 14-character passwords, password complexity requirements, maximum 60-day password age, and prevent password reuse (minimum 24 passwords remembered)
  6. 6. Deploy multi-factor authentication where possible
  7. 7. Decommission all Windows NT and Windows 2000 systems after successful migration
  8. 8. Perform security validation to confirm the legacy vulnerability is no longer present
Caveat Legacy applications running on Windows NT/2000 may require rewriting or replacement; some old hardware may not be compatible with modern OS

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Windows 2000 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,770
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,832.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0535 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-1999-0535 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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