ColdfusionApplication · Allaire

CVE-1999-1124

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 1999-12-31
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
HTTP Client application in ColdFusion allows remote attackers to bypass access restrictions for web pages on other ports by providing the target page to the mainframeset.cfm application, which requests the page from the server, making it look like the request is coming from the local host.

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

The ColdFusion HTTP Client (mainframeSet.cfm) allows remote attackers to bypass access restrictions for web pages on other ports by tricking the application into making requests on the attacker's behalf. The vulnerable component proxies requests to arbitrary targets, making them appear to originate from the local server (127.0.0.1), thus circumventing IP-based access controls.

MitigationUpgrade or patch the ColdFusion installation to remove or fix the vulnerable mainframeSet.cfm component; implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict outbound connections from the ColdFusion server to internal services and non-standard ports.

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
ColdfusionApplication
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. Locate mainframeSet.cfm file
    Search the ColdFusion web root directories and subdirectories for the file mainframeSet.cfm. Common paths include /cfusion/wwwroot/, /cfusion/runtime/servers/default/ or the web document root.
    Affected if The file exists on the server, indicating the vulnerable component is present.
  2. Verify web accessibility of mainframeSet.cfm
    Attempt to access the file via HTTP from an external host: http://target server/mainframeSet.cfm or via the appropriate ColdFusion mapping.
    Affected if The file is accessible and returns a response (rather than a 404 or 403), indicating the component can be invoked.
  3. Test proxy behavior with a test request
    If the file is accessible, send a crafted request with a target parameter pointing to an internal service or non-standard port (for example, mainframeSet.cfm?target=http://127.0.0.1:23 or similar internal resource). Observe if the server attempts to fetch or connect to the specified target.
    Affected if The server successfully proxies the request to the specified target, demonstrating the bypass vulnerability is active.
  4. Review ColdFusion server outbound connectivity
    Check server logs and firewall rules for outbound connections initiated by the ColdFusion service to internal IP addresses or non-standard ports that were not initiated by legitimate local applications.
    Affected if Outbound connections are observed originating from the ColdFusion server to internal resources, indicating potential exploitation.

A server is affected if the mainframeSet.cfm file exists, is web-accessible, and can be induced to proxy requests to arbitrary targets, allowing attackers to bypass IP-based access controls.

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

Upgrade or patch the ColdFusion installation to remove or fix the vulnerable mainframeSet.cfm component; implement network segmentation and firewall rules to restrict outbound connections from the ColdFusion server to internal services and non-standard ports.

Fix this in Coldfusion Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,600
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Scan for this in your stack

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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-1999-1124 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
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