CVE-1999-0562
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 · uneditedThe registry in Windows NT can be accessed remotely by users who are not administrators.
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 confidenceThe Windows NT registry can be accessed remotely by users who are not administrators, allowing unauthorized reading or modification of system configuration data stored in the registry. This vulnerability stems from inadequate access controls on the Remote Registry service in Windows NT.
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 versionsCVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/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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Check if Remote Registry service is runningOpen Services console (services.msc) or run 'net start' command to list running services. Look for 'Remote Registry' service in the list. On command line, check specifically with: sc query RemoteRegistryAffected if The Remote Registry service is listed as RUNNING - this indicates the service is active and may accept remote registry connections
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Verify remote registry access permissions in the registryNavigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RemoteRegistry in the local registry editor (regedt32). Check the 'Start' value (DWORD). A value of 2 means Automatic/Service, 3 means Manual, 4 means Disabled.Affected if The 'Start' value is set to 2 (Automatic) or 3 (Manual) - this means remote registry access can be enabled
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Check network listening ports for RPC and SMBRun 'netstat -an' from command prompt. Look for LISTENING state on ports 135 (RPC Endpoint Mapper), 139 (NetBIOS Session), and 445 (SMB over TCP). Use 'netstat -an | findstr "135 139 445"' to filter.Affected if Ports 135, 139, or 445 are in LISTENING state and accessible from untrusted networks - this allows remote registry enumeration
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Test registry key access permissions remotelyAttempt to connect to remote registry using regedit (Connect Network Registry) or using the winreg Python library or PowerShell's [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]::OpenRemoteBaseKey from another system on the networkAffected if Non-administrator user accounts can successfully read or modify registry keys on the target system remotely - this confirms the vulnerability is exploitable
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Review effective user rights on the target systemUse 'net user' and 'net localgroup' commands to enumerate user accounts. Check which users have access to administrative functions. For Windows NT, check User Manager forDomains for 'Remote Registry' service permissions.Affected if Non-administrator accounts exist and have network access - combined with running Remote Registry service, these accounts could potentially access the registry remotely
A system is affected if the Remote Registry service is running AND ports 135/139/445 are accessible from the network AND non-administrator accounts can remotely read or modify registry keys.
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 dataDisable the Remote Registry service on Windows NT systems and configure firewall rules to block inbound RPC/registry access ports (135, 139, 445) from untrusted networks. Restrict registry access to administrator accounts only.
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- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0562 — 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-1999-0562 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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