CVE-2001-0314
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 · uneditedBuffer overflow in www.tol module in America Online (AOL) 5.0 may allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service, and possibly execute arbitrary commands, via a long URL in a link.
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 · moderate confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in the www.tol module of America Online (AOL) version 5.0 allows remote attackers to trigger the overflow via a specially crafted long URL in a link, potentially enabling arbitrary command execution or denial of service.
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= 5.0CVSS 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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Identify if AOL Server 5.0 is installedCheck the installed AOL Server version by examining the server binary, configuration files, or package metadata. On Unix systems, run 'nsd -v' or check for /AOLserver directory. On Windows, check the installed programs list or the service name.Affected if The installed version is AOL Server 5.0 exactly.
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Locate the www.tol moduleSearch for the 'tol' module file in the AOL Server installation directory, typically under ns/lib or modules/ subdirectories. Look for files named 'tol.so', 'tol.dll', or similar module binaries.Affected if The www.tol module file exists in the AOL Server installation.
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Determine if www.tol module is loadedExamine the AOL Server configuration file (typically nsd.tcl or aolserver.ini) for module loading directives. Search for lines containing 'load' or 'ns_module' referencing the tol module.Affected if The configuration explicitly loads or enables the www.tol module.
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Check if the server is accepting HTTP connectionsAttempt to access the AOL Server via HTTP on ports 80, 8080, or any configured port. Use a tool like curl or netcat to send a request and observe the server response.Affected if The AOL Server is running and responding to HTTP requests on any port.
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Verify URL handling of the www.tol moduleIf the server is accessible and www.tol is enabled, send a request to a URL path that would invoke the tol module (typically /tol/*) with an unusually long string of characters to observe server behavior.Affected if The server accepts long URL paths to the tol module without rejecting or truncating the input.
A system is affected if it is running AOL Server version 5.0 with the www.tol module loaded and accessible via HTTP, allowing specially crafted long URLs to trigger the buffer overflow.
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 dataGiven AOL 5.0 is obsolete legacy software (circa 2001), the primary remediation is to decommission or isolate any systems running this software, as no vendor support or patches exist. Network-level URL filtering and input validation at perimeter devices can provide compensating controls.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2001-0314 — 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-2001-0314 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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