CVE-2005-1574
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 · uneditedWindows Media Player 9 and 10, in certain cases, allows content protected by Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM) to redirect the user to a web site to obtain a license, even when the "Acquire licenses automatically for protected content" setting is not enabled.
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 confidenceWindows Media Player 9 and 10 fails to honor the user's preference setting 'Acquire licenses automatically for protected content.' When a user disables automatic license acquisition, WMDRM-protected content can still trigger a redirect to external websites to obtain licenses, bypassing the user's intended security preference.
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= 9= 10CVSS 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
- Partial
- Availability
- Partial
AV:N/AC:L/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 Windows Media Player versionOpen Windows Media Player, go to Help > About Windows Media Player. Alternatively, check the file version of wmplayer.exe located in C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Media Player\Affected if The installed version is 9.0 or 10.0 exactly (these are the only affected versions listed)
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Locate the automatic license acquisition settingIn Windows Media Player, navigate to Tools > Options > Privacy tab. Look for the setting labeled 'Acquire licenses automatically for protected content' or similar wording related to automatic license retrieval for DRM-protected content.Affected if This setting exists in the affected versions (9 and 10) and can be toggled on or off
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Determine if the user disabled automatic license acquisitionExamine the state of the 'Acquire licenses automatically for protected content' checkbox or toggle. If it is unchecked or set to disabled, the user has intentionally opted out of automatic license acquisition.Affected if The user has explicitly disabled (unchecked) automatic license acquisition - this is the scenario where the bypass vulnerability applies
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Verify if WMDRM-protected content is usedCheck if the system handles or plays WMDRM-protected (Digital Rights Management) media files. This includes WMA files with DRM or other Windows Media protected content that would trigger license acquisition attempts.Affected if The environment plays or processes WMDRM-protected content that would trigger external license acquisition redirects
A user is affected if they have Windows Media Player version 9 or 10 installed AND have disabled the automatic license acquisition setting, as the vulnerability allows external license redirects to occur despite this preference being disabled.
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 the relevant Microsoft security patch for this vulnerability, or upgrade to a patched version of Windows Media Player. Organizations should also consider network-level controls to monitor and block unexpected license acquisition domains.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2005-1574 — 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-2005-1574 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
- No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data