CVE-2002-1778
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 · uneditedSymantec Norton Personal Firewall 2002 allows remote attackers to bypass the portscan protection by using a (1) SYN/FIN, (2) SYN/FIN/URG, (3) SYN/FIN/PUSH, or (4) SYN/FIN/URG/PUSH scan.
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 confidenceSymantec Norton Personal Firewall 2002's portscan detection could be bypassed by attackers using non-standard TCP flag combinations (SYN/FIN, SYN/FIN/URG, SYN/FIN/PUSH, or SYN/FIN/URG/PUSH). The firewall likely only monitored standard SYN scans, allowing these malformed packets to evade detection while still performing port reconnaissance.
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= 2002CVSS 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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Verify Norton Personal Firewall 2002 is installedOpen Add/Remove Programs or check Program Files folder for 'Norton Personal Firewall' or 'Symantec Norton Personal Firewall' entry. On Windows, check the registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for Norton Personal Firewall entries.Affected if Norton Personal Firewall 2002 appears in installed programs or registry
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Confirm exact version is 2002Right-click the Norton Personal Firewall icon in the system tray or open the application and navigate to Help > About. Verify the version number displays exactly 2002 or a build within that release cycle.Affected if Version displays as 2002 specifically (not a later version)
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Check if portscan detection is enabledOpen Norton Personal Firewall settings and locate the 'Port Scan Detection' or 'Intrusion Detection' feature. Verify if it is turned ON or enabled.Affected if Portscan detection feature is enabled in the firewall settings
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Test for bypass vulnerabilitySend TCP packets with non-standard flag combinations (SYN/FIN, SYN/FIN/URG, SYN/FIN/PUSH, or SYN/FIN/URG/PUSH) from an external system toward the protected machine while monitoring if Norton Personal Firewall logs or blocks these probes.Affected if These specific malformed packets are not detected or logged by the firewall's portscan detection
If Norton Personal Firewall version 2002 is installed with portscan detection enabled, the environment is vulnerable to CVE-2002-1778 because the portscan detection can be bypassed using non-standard TCP flag combinations.
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 dataReplace or upgrade the deprecated Norton Personal Firewall 2002 to a current firewall solution with modern portscan detection capabilities that properly inspect all TCP flag combinations.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing6.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2002-1778 — 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-2002-1778 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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