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Firewall 1Application · Checkpoint

CVE-1999-1204

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v2.0 Published 1998-05-11
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
Check Point Firewall-1 does not properly handle certain restricted keywords (e.g., Mail, auth, time) in user-defined objects, which could produce a rule with a default "ANY" address and result in access to more systems than intended by the administrator.

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

Check Point Firewall-1 fails to properly validate certain restricted keywords (such as 'Mail', 'auth', 'time') when used in user-defined objects. This validation failure causes the firewall to interpret the object as having a default 'ANY' address, resulting in rules that permit access to more systems than the administrator intended.

MitigationReview all firewall rules for user-defined objects containing restricted keywords and explicitly specify source/destination addresses rather than relying on default behavior. Consider upgrading to a supported firewall platform if the product is no longer maintained.

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
Firewall 1Application
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. Confirm Check Point Firewall-1 deployment
    Identify whether Check Point Firewall-1 is installed in your environment. Check for firewall management processes, GUI clients, or policy installation logs referencing Firewall-1.
    Affected if Check Point Firewall-1 is present in the environment.
  2. Identify user-defined objects in the firewall policy
    Access the Firewall-1 policy editor or exported policy files. Look for user-defined objects created by administrators, typically found in the Objects database or policy configuration.
    Affected if User-defined objects exist in the firewall configuration.
  3. Search for restricted keywords in object names
    Review all user-defined objects and identify any whose names contain the keywords: 'Mail', 'auth', or 'time'. These are the restricted keywords referenced in the CVE.
    Affected if Objects containing the keywords 'Mail', 'auth', or 'time' are found in the configuration.
  4. Verify address assignment on objects with restricted keywords
    For each object identified with restricted keywords, examine whether it has an explicitly defined source and destination address, or whether it relies on a default 'ANY' address assignment.
    Affected if Objects with restricted keywords have no explicit address defined and default to ANY.
  5. Review firewall rules using affected objects
    Identify all rules in the policy that reference objects containing restricted keywords. Determine if these rules permit traffic to or from more systems than intended due to the default ANY address behavior.
    Affected if Rules using these objects allow broader access than the administrator explicitly defined.

Your environment is affected if Check Point Firewall-1 is deployed with any user-defined objects containing the keywords 'Mail', 'auth', or 'time' that lack explicit address definitions and therefore default to ANY address.

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

Review all firewall rules for user-defined objects containing restricted keywords and explicitly specify source/destination addresses rather than relying on default behavior. Consider upgrading to a supported firewall platform if the product is no longer maintained.

Fix this in Firewall 1 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-1999-1204 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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