Directory ServerApplication · Netscape

CVE-2000-1076

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2000-12-11
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
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
Netscape (iPlanet) Certificate Management System 4.2 and Directory Server 4.12 stores the administrative password in plaintext, which could allow local and possibly remote attackers to gain administrative privileges on the server.

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 confidence

Netscape (iPlanet) Certificate Management System 4.2 and Directory Server 4.12 store the administrative password in plaintext within configuration files or directory entries. This critical flaw allows any local user with filesystem access, or remote attacker who can access the configuration, to retrieve the plaintext password and gain full administrative control over the certificate authority and directory services.

MitigationMigrate to a supported directory and certificate management solution, as these legacy systems are no longer maintained. If continued use is mandatory, implement file-level access controls restricting the password storage location to only privileged administrators, though this is not a permanent solution.

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
Directory ServerApplication
Affected:= 4.12
Iplanet Certificate Management SystemApplication
Affected:= 4.2

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
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed product version
    Determine whether Netscape Directory Server 4.12 or Sun Iplanet Certificate Management System 4.2 is installed in your environment
    Affected if Either product is present at version 4.12 or 4.2 respectively
  2. Locate configuration files
    Search for Netscape Directory Server and Iplanet Certificate Management System configuration files where administrative credentials may be stored
    Affected if Configuration files exist for these products and contain password entries
  3. Examine password storage format
    Open the configuration files and inspect whether administrative passwords are stored in plaintext rather than being hashed or encrypted
    Affected if Administrative passwords appear as readable text in configuration files or directory entries

If Netscape Directory Server 4.12 or Sun Iplanet Certificate Management System 4.2 is running with plaintext administrative passwords stored in configuration files or directory entries, the environment is affected by this CVE.

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

Migrate to a supported directory and certificate management solution, as these legacy systems are no longer maintained. If continued use is mandatory, implement file-level access controls restricting the password storage location to only privileged administrators, though this is not a permanent solution.

Fix this in Directory Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation8.0 h
  • Implementation24.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
44.0 hours of engineering $7,840
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,544.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2000-1076 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2000-1076 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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