CVE-2002-0444
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 Windows 2000 running the Terminal Server 90-day trial version, and possibly other versions, does not apply group policies to incoming users when the number of connections to the SYSVOL share exceeds the maximum, e.g. with a maximum number of licenses, which can allow remote authenticated users to bypass group policies.
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 confidenceIn Windows 2000 Terminal Server (90-day trial and possibly other versions), when the number of connections to the SYSVOL share exceeds the maximum (e.g., due to license limits), group policies are not applied to incoming users. This allows remote authenticated users to bypass security group policies.
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 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
- 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 the operating system versionRun 'winver' from command prompt or check System Properties - the OS must be Windows 2000 for this CVE to applyAffected if The system is running Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2000 Professional with Terminal Services enabled
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Confirm Terminal Services is installedCheck Services list for 'Terminal Services' service or run 'query termserver' from command lineAffected if Terminal Services is installed and running on Windows 2000
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Verify Terminal Services licensing modeCheck Terminal Services Configuration - Licensing tab or registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\TerminalServer\LicenseServerAffected if Licensing is set to 'Per Seat' or license server is unavailable/unreachable, causing connection limits to be enforced
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Check SYSVOL share accessibilityRun 'net view \\servername' or 'net share' to verify SYSVOL share exists and is accessible from the terminal serverAffected if SYSVOL share is not accessible or connections to it would be rejected due to license/connection limits
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Verify group policy applicationRun 'gpresult /r' from a terminal services session or check Event Viewer Application log for Group Policy errorsAffected if Group policies are not being applied to incoming terminal services users, or Event ID 1000 or 1030 errors related to Group Policy appear
A user is affected if they are running Windows 2000 with Terminal Services enabled and the SYSVOL connection limit is being reached or licensing constraints prevent proper group policy application to new sessions.
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 dataSince this affects deprecated Windows 2000, the primary remediation is migrating to a supported Windows Server version. Ensure proper Terminal Server licensing is in place and apply any relevant Microsoft patches for group policy handling.
- Consultation16.0 h
- Implementation40.0 h
- Testing16.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2002-0444 — 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-2002-0444 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
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