CVE-2003-1373
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 · uneditedDirectory traversal vulnerability in auth.php for PhpBB 1.4.0 through 1.4.4 allows remote attackers to read and include arbitrary files via .. (dot dot) sequences followed by NULL (%00) characters in CGI parameters, as demonstrated using the lang parameter in prefs.php.
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 confidenceDirectory traversal vulnerability in PhpBB 1.4.0-1.4.4's auth.php allows remote attackers to read or include arbitrary files via '..' sequences followed by NULL byte (%00) termination in CGI parameters, demonstrated through the lang parameter in prefs.php.
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= 1.4.0= 1.4.1= 1.4.2= 1.4.4CVSS 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Partial
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:M/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 PhpBB installation and versionLook for PhpBB in your web root, check for version.php or admin panel for version number, or search for characteristic PhpBB files and directoriesAffected if The installed version is PhpBB 1.4.0, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, or 1.4.4
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Confirm version is in vulnerable rangeCompare your installed version against the affected ranges: 1.4.0 through 1.4.4Affected if Version is exactly 1.4.0, 1.4.1, 1.4.2, or 1.4.4
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Verify prefs.php exists and is accessibleCheck for the presence of prefs.php in the PhpBB web directory; this file handles user preferences and processes the lang parameterAffected if prefs.php is present and web-accessible
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Confirm auth.php is presentVerify that auth.php exists in the PhpBB installation; this file handles authentication and contains the vulnerable codeAffected if auth.php exists in the installation
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Check if CGI parameter input is acceptedDetermine if the application accepts CGI parameters (via query string or POST) including the lang parameter in prefs.phpAffected if The lang parameter can be passed to prefs.php and is processed without validation
A system is affected if it runs PhpBB version 1.4.0-1.4.4 with both prefs.php and auth.php accessible and processing user-supplied lang parameters.
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 dataUpgrade to a supported version of PhpBB (2.x or later) as the 1.4.x series is obsolete; if immediate upgrade is infeasible, implement strict input validation on all user-supplied parameters to reject '..' sequences and NULL bytes.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-1373 — 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-2003-1373 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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