CVE-2000-0216
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 · uneditedMicrosoft email clients in Outlook, Exchange, and Windows Messaging automatically respond to Read Receipt and Delivery Receipt tags, which could allow an attacker to flood a mail system with responses by forging a Read Receipt request that is redirected to a large distribution list.
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 confidenceMicrosoft Outlook, Exchange, and Windows Messaging email clients automatically generate and send Read Receipt and Delivery Receipt responses when prompted by incoming email headers. An attacker can exploit this by crafting a forged email with a receipt request directed at a large distribution list, causing the mail system to flood the target with automated responses.
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 versionsall versionsall 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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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Check Outlook automatic receipt settingsIn Outlook, go to Options > Email > Tracking and verify if 'Send read receipt' or 'Send delivery receipt' options are enabled for incoming messages.Affected if Automatic read or delivery receipt processing is enabled in Outlook client settings
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Check Exchange server receipt handling configurationInspect Exchange transport rules or routing configuration for any rules that automatically process incoming receipt requests. Look for settings related to DSN (Delivery Status Notification) handling.Affected if Exchange is configured to automatically process and respond to receipt requests without filtering external sources
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Check Windows Messaging receipt settingsExamine Windows Messaging client options for automatic receipt generation settings. Look under message handling or receipt configuration areas.Affected if Windows Messaging is set to automatically send read or delivery receipts in response to incoming requests
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Verify installed product versionsCheck installed versions of Microsoft Outlook, Exchange Server, and Windows Messaging against the affected ranges (all versions). Use 'winver' for Windows components or check Program Files for Outlook, and Exchange Administrator or Get-ExchangeServer for Exchange.Affected if Any affected product (Outlook, Exchange Server, or Windows Messaging) is installed regardless of version, as all versions are impacted
If automatic receipt processing is enabled on any affected email client (Outlook or Windows Messaging) or Exchange server, the environment is vulnerable to receipt flood attacks via forged receipt request headers.
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 dataDisable automatic Read Receipt and Delivery Receipt processing in Outlook client settings and configure Exchange server rules to strip or quarantine external receipt requests before delivery to internal distribution lists.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-0216 — 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-2000-0216 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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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.
- 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data