CVE-2003-0746
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 · uneditedVarious Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) implementations, including HP OpenView, allow remote attackers to cause a denial of service (process hang or termination) via certain malformed inputs, as triggered by attempted exploits against the vulnerabilities CVE-2003-0352 or CVE-2003-0605, such as the Blaster/MSblast/LovSAN worm.
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 confidenceVarious Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) implementations, including HP OpenView, suffer from a denial-of-service vulnerability when receiving certain malformed inputs. These malformed inputs are generated as a side effect when exploits targeting unrelated vulnerabilities CVE-2003-0352 or CVE-2003-0605 (such as the Blaster worm) attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities on systems running these DCE implementations. The malformed data causes affected processes to hang or terminate.
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 dataall 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
- 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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Verify HP OpenView installationCheck if HP OpenView software is present on the system using system inventory tools, package managers, or by searching for OpenView executables and directories (e.g., /opt/OV, /opt/hp/ov).Affected if HP OpenView is installed - all versions are affected by this vulnerability.
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Confirm DCE/RPC services are runningIdentify if DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) or RPC services related to HP OpenView are active. On Unix systems, check for processes like 'dced', 'rpc.cmsd', or HP OpenView daemons (ovbb, ovcd, ovtopmd). On Windows, check for HP OpenView services in Services control panel.Affected if DCE/RPC services for HP OpenView are running and listening for remote connections.
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Monitor for process hangs or crashesReview system logs (syslog, event viewer) and HP OpenView-specific logs for unexpected process terminations or hangs, particularly in ovbb, ovcd, ovtopmd, or related daemons occurring around the time of Blaster worm activity.Affected if HP OpenView processes are hanging or terminating unexpectedly without other clear causes.
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Inspect network traffic for malformed RPC requestsUse network capture tools (tcpdump, Wireshark) to monitor RPC traffic on ports 135, 139, 445, or custom DCE ports for malformed requests that would be generated by Blaster worm exploits attempting to reach CVE-2003-0352 or CVE-2003-0605 targets.Affected if The system is receiving malformed RPC traffic patterns associated with Blaster/MSblast worm exploits targeting unrelated vulnerabilities.
A system is affected if HP OpenView with DCE/RPC services is running and exposed to network traffic containing malformed RPC requests generated by Blaster worm exploits, resulting in process hangs or terminations.
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 vendor patches for affected DCE implementations, or implement network-level filtering to block the specific malformed traffic patterns associated with Blaster/MSblast worm exploits.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,120.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-0746 — 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-2003-0746 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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