CVE-2005-2579
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 · uneditedNortel Contivity VPN Client V05_01.030, when configuring a certificate to be used as authentication, does not properly drop system privileges, which allows local users to gain privileges by opening a program with the File Open dialog box.
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 confidenceThe Nortel Contivity VPN Client V05_01.030 fails to drop system privileges after performing certificate configuration tasks. When a user initiates a File Open dialog box within the privileged context, the application maintains elevated permissions that can be exploited by local users to execute arbitrary code with SYSTEM-level privileges, achieving local privilege escalation.
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= v05_01.030CVSS 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
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- Complete
- Integrity
- Complete
- Availability
- Complete
AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C
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 Nortel Contivity VPN Client installationCheck for the presence of Nortel Contivity VPN Client by examining installed programs in Windows Add/Remove Programs, or search for the client executable (typically named 'Contivity.exe' or similar in Program Files directories)Affected if The Nortel Contivity VPN Client is found on the system
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Confirm installed version numberRight-click the Contivity client executable, select Properties, and check the Version tab for the product version. Alternatively, check the Windows registry under HKLM\Software\Nortel or examine the application's About dialogAffected if The version is exactly v05_01.030 (or 05_01.030)
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Verify application runs with elevated privilegesLaunch the Contivity client and use Task Manager to examine the process privileges. Check if the process runs under a privileged account or with elevated tokensAffected if The Contivity process runs with SYSTEM or administrator-level privileges
A system is affected only if the Nortel Contivity VPN Client version 05_01.030 is installed and running with elevated (SYSTEM or administrator) privileges.
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 dataReplace or upgrade the obsolete Nortel Contivity VPN Client to a currently-supported VPN solution, as this version is no longer maintained and cannot be patched. Implement least-privilege policies and restrict local access to systems handling authentication credentials.
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation24.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-2579 — 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-2005-2579 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
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