CVE-1999-1361
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 · uneditedWindows NT 3.51 and 4.0 running WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (resource exhaustion) via a flood of malformed packets, which causes the server to slow down and fill the event logs with error messages.
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 confidenceWindows NT 3.51 and 4.0 WINS service contains a vulnerability where malformed packets sent in rapid succession cause resource exhaustion, significantly degrading server performance and filling event logs with error messages.
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= 3.5.1= 4.0CVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/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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Identify the Windows NT versionRun 'winmsd' or check System Properties to confirm the exact Windows NT version (3.51 or 4.0)Affected if The system is running Windows NT 3.51 or Windows NT 4.0 specifically
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Determine if WINS is installedCheck for the presence of the WINS service in Control Panel > Services or run 'net start' to see if 'Windows Internet Name Service' is listedAffected if WINS service is installed and running on the system
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Review WINS event logs for errorsOpen Event Viewer and examine WINS event logs for repeated error messages related to malformed packets or resource exhaustionAffected if Event logs contain numerous WINS-related error entries from network packet handling
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Check for service performance degradationMonitor WINS service responsiveness and system resource usage (CPU, memory) during normal or attempted network operationsAffected if WINS service shows significantly degraded performance or fails to respond to requests
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Inspect network packet filtersReview any network monitoring logs or packet captures for incoming traffic to WINS port 137 to identify malformed packetsAffected if Malformed packets are being received on the WINS service port
A system is affected if it runs Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0 with the WINS service enabled and is receiving malformed packets that cause resource exhaustion symptoms.
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 dataSince Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 are end-of-life, migrate to a supported Windows Server version. If WINS is still required in the environment, disable it or implement network filtering to block malformed packets.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-1361 — 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-1999-1361 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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