Windows NtOperating system · Microsoft

CVE-1999-0575

HIGH · 7.5 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 →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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 system's user audit policy does not log an event success or failure, e.g. for Logon and Logoff, File and Object Access, Use of User Rights, User and Group Management, Security Policy Changes, Restart, Shutdown, and System, and Process Tracking.

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

Windows NT's audit policy is not configured to log security events such as Logon/Logoff, File and Object Access, Use of User Rights, User and Group Management, Security Policy Changes, Restart, Shutdown, and System/Process Tracking. This means security-relevant activities go unrecorded, preventing detection of unauthorized access or malicious activities through log analysis.

MitigationEnable and configure Windows NT audit policy to log all relevant security event categories including Logon/Logoff, Object Access, User Rights, User Management, Security Policy Changes, and System events.

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: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
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 checks

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

  1. Verify audit policy is enabled
    Open User Manager (usrmgr.exe) on the Windows NT system, then go to Policies > Audit to view the audit policy configuration. Alternatively, check the registry key HKLM\SECURITY\Policy\PolicyAccounts or use the 'auditpol' command if available.
    Affected if Audit policy is disabled or set to 'No Audit'
  2. Check which security event categories are configured
    In User Manager > Policies > Audit, examine which event categories are enabled. The summary indicates the following categories should be logged: Logon/Logoff, File and Object Access, Use of User Rights, User and Group Management, Security Policy Changes, Restart, Shutdown, and System/Process Tracking.
    Affected if One or more of these critical security categories are not enabled for auditing
  3. Verify security event logging is active
    Open Event Viewer and navigate to the Security log. Attempt to perform actions such as user logon/logoff, file access, or policy changes, then check if these events appear in the Security log.
    Affected if The Security log is empty or does not contain events from the categories listed above after performing typical operations
  4. Confirm audit log is configured to retain records
    In Event Viewer, check the Security log properties to verify maximum log size and retention settings. Also verify the log is not set to 'Do not overwrite' with full clearing, which could cause events to be lost.
    Affected if Audit logging is configured in a way that results in no persistent security event records

The system is affected if the Windows NT audit policy is disabled or not configured to log all specified security event categories, resulting in no security events being recorded in the Security log.

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

Enable and configure Windows NT audit policy to log all relevant security event categories including Logon/Logoff, Object Access, User Rights, User Management, Security Policy Changes, and System events.

Fix this in Windows Nt Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
5.0 hours of engineering $910
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,456.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-0575 — 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-1999-0575 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