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Enterprise ServerApplication · Netscape

CVE-1999-0686

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-05-07
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
Denial of service in Netscape Enterprise Server (NES) in HP Virtual Vault (VVOS) via a long URL.

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

Netscape Enterprise Server running on HP Virtual Vault contains a denial of service vulnerability triggered by sending an excessively long URL request to the server, causing it to crash or become unresponsive.

MitigationImplement URL length limits at the web server or upstream proxy/load balancer level, and migrate away from these legacy End-of-Life products if still in production.

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
Enterprise ServerApplication
Affected:all versions
Hp UxOperating system
Affected:= 10.24

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
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 checks

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

  1. Confirm Netscape Enterprise Server is installed
    Run 'ps -ef | grep -i netscape' or check for server processes named 'netscape' or 'httpd' (Netscape)
    Affected if Netscape Enterprise Server process is found running
  2. Verify the operating system is HP-UX 10.24
    Run 'uname -a' or 'swlist -l product' to check the HP-UX version
    Affected if HP-UX version is 10.24
  3. Confirm the server is running on HP Virtual Vault
    Check system documentation, VM configuration, or run 'model' command to identify the platform
    Affected if The system is identified as HP Virtual Vault
  4. Verify the web service is network-accessible
    Attempt to access the server via HTTP on ports 80 or 443, or check listening ports with 'netstat -an | grep -E "(80|443)"'
    Affected if The web server is listening and accessible over the network

You are affected if Netscape Enterprise Server is running on HP Virtual Vault with HP-UX 10.24 and the web service is network-accessible, as the DoS vulnerability is triggered by sending an excessively long URL to the server.

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

Implement URL length limits at the web server or upstream proxy/load balancer level, and migrate away from these legacy End-of-Life products if still in production.

Fix this in Enterprise Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
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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-1999-0686 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