CVE-2002-0863
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 · uneditedRemote Data Protocol (RDP) version 5.0 in Microsoft Windows 2000 and RDP 5.1 in Windows XP does not encrypt the checksums of plaintext session data, which could allow a remote attacker to determine the contents of encrypted sessions via sniffing, aka "Weak Encryption in RDP Protocol."
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 confidenceRDP versions 5.0 (Windows 2000) and 5.1 (Windows XP) fail to encrypt the checksums of plaintext session data. This allows a remote attacker who can sniff network traffic to determine the contents of supposedly encrypted RDP sessions by analyzing unencrypted checksum values.
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= beta3all versionsall versions= 4.0all 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
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 Windows versionRun 'winver' or check system properties to determine if the OS is Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, or .NET Windows Server beta3Affected if The OS is any version of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, or .NET Windows Server beta3
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Verify if Terminal Services or RDP is enabledCheck the system for Remote Desktop functionality: go to System Properties > Remote tab, or run 'systeminfo' and look for 'Terminal Services' or 'RDP' in the output, or check the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServerAffected if Remote Desktop or Terminal Services is enabled on an affected OS version
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Determine the RDP versionCheck the RDP version by examining the termsrv.dll version in %SystemRoot%\System32\ (for XP/2000), or check the Terminal Services version via registry or system information utilityAffected if The RDP version is 5.0 (Windows 2000) or 5.1 (Windows XP)
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Check the encryption level configurationInspect the RDP security configuration via Group Policy (gpedit.msc) under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services > Security, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Terminal Services for encryption level settingsAffected if Encryption is set to 'Low' or 'Client Compatible' instead of 'High' on an affected RDP version
A user is affected if they are running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT 4.0, or .NET Windows Server beta3 with RDP/Terminal Services enabled and RDP version 5.0 or 5.1 configured with weak encryption.
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 dataThis is a legacy vulnerability affecting Windows 2000 and XP, which are end-of-life. Remediation involves decommissioning these obsolete systems or ensuring RDP is only used over VPN with modern RDP clients and servers that support proper encryption. Network Level Authentication (NLA) should be enabled where possible.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2002-0863 — 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-2002-0863 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
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