CVE-1999-1365
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 searches a user's home directory (%systemroot% by default) before other directories to find critical programs such as NDDEAGNT.EXE, EXPLORER.EXE, USERINIT.EXE or TASKMGR.EXE, which could allow local users to bypass access restrictions or gain privileges by placing a Trojan horse program into the root directory, which is writable by default.
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 has a path search order vulnerability where it searches the user's home directory (%systemroot% by default) before system directories when locating critical executables such as NDDEAGNT.EXE, EXPLORER.EXE, USERINIT.EXE, and TASKMGR.EXE. Since the root directory is writable by default, local users can place Trojan horse versions of these programs there, causing them to be executed with elevated privileges instead of the legitimate system binaries.
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 dataall versionsCVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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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Confirm Windows NT versionRun 'winver' or check system properties to identify the operating system. If the OS is Windows NT (any version), this vulnerability may apply.Affected if Operating system is Windows NT (any version)
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Check system root directory permissionsUse 'cacls C:\' (or the system root drive) to list permissions on the root directory. Verify if standard users or the Everyone group have Write permissions.Affected if Users other than Administrators have Write or Full Control permissions on the system root directory
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Search for vulnerable executables in system rootRun 'dir C:\NDDEAGNT.EXE C:\EXPLORER.EXE C:\USERINIT.EXE C:\TASKMGR.EXE' (substituting the actual system root drive) to check if any of these critical executables exist in the root directory.Affected if Any of NDDEAGNT.EXE, EXPLORER.EXE, USERINIT.EXE, or TASKMGR.EXE are present in the system root directory
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Examine PATH environment variable orderRun 'echo %PATH%' and verify if the system root directory (typically C:\) appears early in the PATH, before system directories like C:\WINNT\System32.Affected if System root directory appears before system directories in the PATH variable
A system is affected if it runs Windows NT and has writable system root permissions that could allow placement of Trojan executables that Windows NT would execute before the legitimate system binaries.
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 dataThis vulnerability affects legacy Windows NT systems and was addressed in subsequent Windows versions. Organizations should ensure they are not running unsupported Windows NT installations, verify that system root directories have restrictive permissions, and upgrade to supported operating systems if applicable.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-1999-1365 — 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-1999-1365 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
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