CVE-2004-1686
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 · uneditedInternet Explorer 6.0 in Windows XP SP2 allows remote attackers to bypass the Information Bar prompt for ActiveX and Javascript via an XHTML page that contains an Internet Explorer formatted comment between the DOCTYPE tag and the HTML tag, as demonstrated using the DesignScience MathPlayer ActiveX plugin.
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 6.0 on Windows XP SP2 contains a flaw where an XHTML page containing an IE-formatted comment placed between the DOCTYPE and HTML tags can bypass the Information Bar security prompt that normally warns users before executing ActiveX controls or JavaScript. This allows remote attackers to silently run potentially malicious ActiveX components (demonstrated with DesignScience MathPlayer) without user awareness.
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= 6.0CVSS 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
- None
- Integrity
- Partial
- Availability
- None
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:P/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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Confirm Internet Explorer versionOpen Internet Explorer, click Help > About Internet Explorer, or run 'reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer" /v Version'Affected if The version shows 6.0 (exact match required)
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Confirm Windows XP SP2 is in useRun 'systeminfo | findstr /C:"OS Name" /C:"Service Pack"' or check System PropertiesAffected if The OS is Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed
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Verify IE security settings allow ActiveXCheck IE Internet Options > Security > Custom Level - look for 'Run ActiveX controls and plugins' settingAffected if ActiveX controls are set to Enabled or Prompt (not Disabled)
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Identify if XHTML content with IE comments is processedInspect web content or proxy logs for XHTML documents containing IE-specific comments (<!-- comments -->) placed between DOCTYPE and <html> tagsAffected if The environment processes XHTML content with this specific structure, which bypasses the Information Bar
You are affected if you are running Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP SP2 with ActiveX enabled and processing XHTML content that contains IE-formatted comments between DOCTYPE and HTML tags.
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 dataThis is an obsolete browser vulnerability on end-of-life software. The primary mitigation is migrating away from Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows XP SP2 to modern browser and operating system versions that do not contain this flaw.
- 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-2004-1686 — 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-2004-1686 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