CVE-2003-0113
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 URLMON.DLL in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5 and 6.0 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via an HTTP response containing long values in (1) Content-type and (2) Content-encoding fields.
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 confidenceBuffer overflow vulnerability in URLMON.DLL allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via HTTP responses containing excessively long Content-type and Content-encoding header values. The vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, and 6.0.
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= 6.0= 5.0.1= 5.5= 6.0CVSS 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 Internet Explorer installed versionOpen Internet Explorer, click Help > About Internet Explorer, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\VersionAffected if The reported version is 5.0.1, 5.5, or 6.0
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Locate and verify URLMON.DLL versionFind URLMON.DLL in the system directory (typically C:\Windows\System32\) and check its file properties for the version numberAffected if URLMON.DLL exists on the system and corresponds to an affected IE version
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Confirm Internet Explorer is actively usedCheck if Internet Explorer is set as the default browser or is regularly used for web browsingAffected if IE is the default browser or is routinely used to browse HTTP content
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Verify the Content-Type and Content-encoding header handlingThis vulnerability is triggered by malicious servers sending excessively long headers; there is no local config to check - the flaw exists in the URLMON.DLL library itself when processing HTTP responsesAffected if The URLMON.DLL library is present and processes HTTP responses from untrusted sources
If Internet Explorer version 5.0.1, 5.5, or 6.0 is installed and URLMON.DLL is present on the system, and IE is used to browse the web, the environment is likely affected by this vulnerability.
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 dataApply the relevant Microsoft security update for this vulnerability and consider migrating to a supported browser version, as IE 6.0 and earlier are obsolete and no longer receive security patches.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0113 — 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-2003-0113 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data