CVE-2003-0231
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 SQL Server 7, 2000, and MSDE allows local or remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (crash or hang) via a long request to a named pipe.
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 confidenceThis is a denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft SQL Server 7, 2000, and MSDE. Authenticated users (local or remote) can send an excessively long request to a named pipe, causing the SQL Server service to crash or hang.
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= 1.0= 7.0= 2000CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 SQL Server versionRun the query 'SELECT @@VERSION' against the SQL Server instance, or check the installed programs list, or check the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\Setup for the version value.Affected if The version returned or listed is SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000, or MSDE 1.0.
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Verify named pipe protocol is enabledOpen SQL Server Configuration Manager (or SQL Server Network Utility for older versions), navigate to the instance, and check if Named Pipes protocol is enabled in the client protocols or server protocols list.Affected if Named Pipes protocol is listed as Enabled or Active.
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Confirm named pipe listener is boundCheck the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSSQLServer\MSSQLServer\SuperSocketNetLib\Np for a value named 'Enabled' set to '1', or verify using the SQL Server Configuration Manager interface.Affected if The named pipe protocol is enabled at the server level.
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Assess authentication access scopeReview which Windows accounts or SQL logins have access to the SQL Server instance, including remote authentication if the server accepts remote connections.Affected if Any authenticated user (local Windows account, domain user, or SQL login) has access to the SQL Server instance.
You are affected if you are running SQL Server 7.0, 2000, or MSDE 1.0 with named pipes enabled and any authenticated user (local or remote) can connect to the database.
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 dataRestrict access to SQL Server to trusted authenticated users only, and consider network segmentation to limit exposure to named pipe interfaces. For legacy systems no longer supported, migrate to currently supported SQL Server versions.
- 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-2003-0231 — 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-2003-0231 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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