CVE-2005-3499
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 · uneditedFrisk F-Prot Antivirus allows remote attackers to bypass protection via a ZIP file with a version header greater than 15, which prevents F-Prot from decompressing and analyzing the file.
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 confidenceF-Prot Antivirus fails to decompress and scan ZIP files whose version header exceeds version 15, allowing malicious payloads to bypass antivirus detection. The scanner's ZIP parsing logic cannot handle newer ZIP format specifications, resulting in the file being passed through without inspection.
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 dataall versions= 3.12b= 3.12d= 3.16c= 4.4.2CVSS 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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Confirm F-Prot Antivirus is installedCheck for F-Prot installation by searching common installation directories (C:\Program Files\F-Prot on Windows, /opt/f-prot or /usr/local/f-prot on Linux) or use system package queries (dpkg -l | grep -i f-prot, rpm -qa | grep -i f-prot, or Windows Registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\Frisk Software\F-Prot).Affected if F-Prot Antivirus is not present on the system.
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Identify installed F-Prot versionRun 'f-prot --version' from command line, check the About dialog if GUI is available, or read version from the installed program files (typically in version.txt or the main executable properties).Affected if Unable to determine the installed version.
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Compare version against affected rangeReview the identified version against the affected versions: 3.12b, 3.12d, 3.16c, 4.4.2, or any version if the 'all versions' statement applies.Affected if The installed version matches 3.12b, 3.12d, 3.16c, 4.4.2, or is any version of F-Prot Antivirus if all versions are affected.
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Verify ZIP scanning behaviorCreate a test ZIP file with a version header greater than 15 (ZIP format version 1.0 uses version 10 = 1.0; version 15 would be 1.5; use a hex editor or zip creation tool to set version needed to extract to a value above 15). Scan this file with F-Prot using command-line scanner (f-prot /scan /recursive test.zip) or GUI. Verify if the contents inside are actually scanned or if the file passes through untouched.Affected if F-Prot does not scan the contents of ZIP files with version header > 15 and reports them as clean without decompression.
A system is affected if F-Prot Antivirus is installed and the installed version matches the affected versions (3.12b, 3.12d, 3.16c, 4.4.2, or all versions), resulting in ZIP files with version header > 15 bypassing antivirus scanning.
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 F-Prot Antivirus to a version that supports newer ZIP format specifications, or implement additional email/gateway scanning with an alternative antivirus solution capable of handling modern ZIP headers.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $8,960.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2005-3499 — 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-2005-3499 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