CVE-2005-4269
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 · uneditedmshtml.dll in Microsoft Windows XP, Server 2003, and Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 allows attackers to cause a denial of service (access violation) by causing mshtml.dll to process button-focus events at the same time that a document is reloading, as seen in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 by repeatedly clicking the "Delete" button in a repeating section in a form. NOTE: the normal operation of InfoPath appears to involve a local user without any privilege boundaries, so this might not be a vulnerability in InfoPath. If no realistic scenarios exist for this problem in other products, then perhaps it should be excluded from CVE.
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 confidenceMemory corruption vulnerability in mshtml.dll where a race condition occurs when button-focus events are processed simultaneously with document reload, causing an access violation and crash. Triggered via repeated UI interactions in InfoPath 2003.
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= 6.0= r2all versionsCVSS 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
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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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Identify Internet Explorer versionOpen IE, click Help > About Internet Explorer, or run 'winver' and check program versionsAffected if Internet Explorer version is exactly 6.0
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Identify Windows versionRun 'winver' or right-click My Computer > PropertiesAffected if Windows XP (any Service Pack) or Windows Server 2003 R2
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Confirm mshtml.dll is presentCheck file version of C:\Windows\System32\mshtml.dll (right-click > Properties > Version tab)Affected if mshtml.dll exists on the system (required component)
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Check for InfoPath 2003 usageVerify if Microsoft InfoPath 2003 is installed (Check Add/Remove Programs or search for infopath.exe)Affected if InfoPath 2003 is installed and actively used with repeated form interactions
User is affected if running Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 R2, particularly when using InfoPath 2003 with repeated UI interactions that trigger button-focus events concurrent with document reload.
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 Microsoft security updates for Windows XP/Server 2003 if still in use; however, these platforms are end-of-life and should be upgraded to supported Windows versions.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 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-2005-4269 — 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-2005-4269 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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