CVE-1999-1397
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 · uneditedIndex Server 2.0 on IIS 4.0 stores physical path information in the ContentIndex\Catalogs subkey of the AllowedPaths registry key, whose permissions allows local and remote users to obtain the physical paths of directories that are being indexed.
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 confidenceIndex Server 2.0 on IIS 4.0 stores physical path information in the ContentIndex\Catalogs subkey of the AllowedPaths registry key. The registry key has overly permissive access controls that allow both local and remote users to read this information, exposing the physical paths of directories being indexed.
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= 2.0CVSS 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
- 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Index Server 2.0 is installedCheck the Windows registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Index Server or look for the Index Server service in Services. Alternatively, check for the presence of the Idq.dll or Search files in the system32 directory.Affected if Index Server 2.0 is installed on IIS 4.0
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Locate the vulnerable registry keyOpen Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ContentIndex\Catalogs or check for the AllowedPaths key under the ContentIndex hive.Affected if The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ContentIndex\Catalogs exists and contains physical path entries
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Inspect registry key permissionsRight-click the ContentIndex\Catalogs key in Regedit, select Permissions, and examine which users or groups have Read or Full Control access. From command line, use 'reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ContentIndex' to confirm key existence.Affected if Users other than Administrators or System have Read access to the ContentIndex registry key
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Check for exposed physical pathsExamine the values under the ContentIndex\Catalogs key to see if physical file system paths (such as C:\, D:\, or specific folder paths) are stored as registry values.Affected if The registry key contains physical drive letters or full directory paths in its value data
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Verify remote access exposureIf the system is on a network, attempt to query the registry key remotely using reg query or check if the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ContentIndex key is accessible without authentication.Affected if The registry key is accessible to anonymous or low-privilege remote users
A system is affected if Index Server 2.0 is installed on IIS 4.0 and the ContentIndex\Catalogs registry key is readable by non-admin users, exposing physical path information.
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 dataRestrict permissions on the ContentIndex\Catalogs registry key to prevent unauthorized users from reading the physical path information, or remove/modify the AllowedPaths configuration to avoid exposing sensitive path data.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-1999-1397 — 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-1999-1397 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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