CVE-2003-1559
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 Internet Explorer 5.22, and other 5 through 6 SP1 versions, sends Referer headers containing https:// URLs in requests for http:// URLs, which allows remote attackers to obtain potentially sensitive information by reading Referer log data.
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 confidenceInternet Explorer 5.x through 6 SP1 incorrectly sends HTTPS URLs in the Referer header when navigating from a secure (HTTPS) page to an insecure (HTTP) resource, allowing sensitive information from secure URLs (such as session identifiers, paths, or query parameters) to be exposed in HTTP server logs.
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= 5.22= 5.5= 6CVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
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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Check Internet Explorer versionOpen Internet Explorer, click Help > About Internet Explorer. Record the version number shown (for example: 6.0.2800.1106).Affected if Version is 5.5, 5.22, or any 6.x version (through SP1)
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Confirm Service Pack level for IE 6In the About Internet Explorer dialog, check whether Service Pack 1 appears after the version number. If no SP is listed, the system may be unpatched or at an earlier patch level.Affected if IE 6 without Service Pack 1 applied, or with SP1 still present (SP1 does not fully mitigate this issue)
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Identify HTTPS-to-HTTP navigation behaviorThis vulnerability manifests when a user browses a secure (HTTPS) page and clicks a link to an insecure (HTTP) resource. The Referer header transmitted to the HTTP server will include the full HTTPS URL with sensitive path, query string, or session identifiers.Affected if Users navigate from HTTPS pages to HTTP pages using the affected browser versions
If Internet Explorer version 5.5, 5.22, or 6.x (including SP1) is installed and users browse from HTTPS to HTTP pages, the Referer header will leak sensitive URL information to HTTP servers.
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 Internet Explorer to a version post-SP1 or use an alternative browser; Microsoft released patches addressing this Referer header leakage in later versions.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2003-1559 — 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-2003-1559 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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A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.
- 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