Internet Information ServerApplication · Microsoft

CVE-2001-0096

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2001-02-12
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
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
FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) in IIS 4.0 and 5.0 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a malformed form, aka the "Malformed Web Form Submission" vulnerability.

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

The FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) for IIS 4.0 and 5.0 contain a denial of service vulnerability where malformed form submissions can cause the server extensions to become unresponsive or crash, rendering web services unavailable.

MitigationApply Microsoft's security patches for this vulnerability (if available) or disable FrontPage Server Extensions if not required. For legacy IIS 4.0/5.0 systems, consider upgrading to supported IIS versions or isolating such systems from production use.

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
Internet Information ServerApplication
Affected:= 4.0
Internet Information ServicesApplication
Affected:= 5.0

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
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 checks

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

  1. Check IIS version
    Open IIS Manager (inetmgr) or check the version via the About dialog, or run 'reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp' to read the version registry key
    Affected if The installed version is IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0
  2. Verify FrontPage Server Extensions presence
    Check for the existence of the FPSE virtual directories (_vti_bin) or the FrontPage Server Extensions software component on the server
    Affected if FrontPage Server Extensions are installed on the IIS server
  3. Confirm FPSE is enabled for web sites
    Review IIS web site configuration to determine if any sites have FrontPage Server Extensions web authoring or administration features enabled
    Affected if FPSE is enabled and serving web requests
  4. Identify exposed FPSE form handlers
    Review the configuration of _vti_bin or _fpclass directories and their handling of form submissions to determine if they accept external requests
    Affected if FPSE form processing modules are accessible to external users

You are affected if you are running IIS 4.0 or IIS 5.0 with FrontPage Server Extensions installed and enabled, as malformed form submissions to FPSE can cause denial of service.

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

Apply Microsoft's security patches for this vulnerability (if available) or disable FrontPage Server Extensions if not required. For legacy IIS 4.0/5.0 systems, consider upgrading to supported IIS versions or isolating such systems from production use.

Fix this in Internet Information Server Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,090
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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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-2001-0096 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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