CVE-2002-1591
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 · uneditedAOL Instant Messenger (AIM) 4.7.2480 adds free.aol.com to the Trusted Sites Zone in Internet Explorer without user approval, which could allow code from free.aol.com to bypass intended access restrictions.
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 confidenceAOL Instant Messenger version 4.7.2480 silently adds free.aol.com to the Internet Explorer Trusted Sites Zone without user consent. This allows code executed from free.aol.com to bypass intended IE security restrictions, as Trusted Sites Zone has relaxed security settings compared to the Internet Zone.
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= 4.7.2480CVSS 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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Check installed AOL Instant Messenger versionOpen AIM, click the 'AIM' menu and select 'About AOL Instant Messenger' to display the version number, or right-click the AIM icon in the system tray and select 'About AOL Instant Messenger'Affected if The displayed version is exactly 4.7.2480
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Verify if free.aol.com exists in IE Trusted Sites ZoneOpen Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security tab, select Trusted Sites zone, click Sites button, and examine the list of trusted sites for 'free.aol.com' entryAffected if free.aol.com is present in the Trusted Sites zone list
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Check IE security settings for Trusted Sites zoneIn Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites > Custom Level, review the security settings configured for the Trusted Sites zone (note: these are relaxed by default compared to Internet zone)Affected if Trusted Sites zone is configured with default relaxed settings, which combined with free.aol.com presence allows reduced security restrictions
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Confirm AIM process is running and has modified IE zonesVerify that AIM version 4.7.2480 was installed and has been run at least once on the system, as the zone modification occurs silently during first run or when certain AIM features are accessedAffected if AIM 4.7.2480 has been installed and executed, enabling the silent zone modification mechanism
A user is affected if they are running AOL Instant Messenger version 4.7.2480 AND free.aol.com appears in their Internet Explorer Trusted Sites zone, allowing code from that domain to operate with relaxed security restrictions.
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 dataRemove free.aol.com from the Internet Explorer Trusted Sites Zone and upgrade to a current version of AIM that does not exhibit this behavior, or disable the automatic Trusted Sites Zone modification if option exists in newer AIM versions.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2002-1591 — 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-2002-1591 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data