CVE-2006-2531
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 · uneditedIpswitch WhatsUp Professional 2006 only verifies the user's identity via HTTP headers, which allows remote attackers to spoof being a trusted console and bypass authentication by setting HTTP User-Agent header to "Ipswitch/1.0" and the User-Application header to "NmConsole".
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 confidenceIpswitch WhatsUp Professional 2006 authenticates users solely by trusting client-supplied HTTP headers (User-Agent: Ipswitch/1.0 and User-Application: NmConsole), allowing remote attackers to impersonate a trusted console and bypass authentication entirely without valid credentials.
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= professional_2006CVSS 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 if Ipswitch WhatsUp Professional 2006 is installedCheck the system for the presence of Ipswitch WhatsUp Professional 2006 by looking in Program Files for an Ipswitch folder, or check the Windows registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Ipswitch for WhatsUpAffected if The software is installed and the version shows professional_2006 exactly
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Verify the installed WhatsUp versionLocate the WhatsUp installation directory and check the version information in the main executable or an About dialog if accessible through the consoleAffected if The installed version is exactly professional_2006 (version 2006)
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Confirm the web console (NmConsole) is accessibleAttempt to access the WhatsUp web interface by browsing to the server on the configured HTTP port (typically port 80/443) and verify the NmConsole endpoint respondsAffected if The web console is accessible and responds to HTTP requests
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Inspect HTTP header authentication behaviorSend an HTTP request to the web console with the headers User-Agent: Ipswitch/1.0 and User-Application: NmConsole, and observe if the request bypasses normal login requirementsAffected if Sending requests with these specific headers grants access without presenting valid credentials, indicating the vulnerability is present
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Check authentication configurationReview the WhatsUp web server configuration files for settings that rely on HTTP headers (User-Agent, User-Application) for authentication decisions rather than session tokens or standard authAffected if The configuration explicitly trusts client-supplied headers for authentication without additional validation
A user is affected if Ipswitch WhatsUp Professional 2006 is installed with its web console accessible, and the system allows authentication bypass when HTTP requests include User-Agent: Ipswitch/1.0 and User-Application: NmConsole headers without valid credentials.
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 header-based authentication with proper credential-based authentication using session tokens or standard authentication protocols, and validate all authentication server-side without trusting client-supplied headers.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing8.0 h
- Review / QA4.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2006-2531 — 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-2006-2531 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
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