CVE-2007-1090
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 · uneditedMicrosoft Windows Explorer on Windows XP and 2003 allows remote user-assisted attackers to cause a denial of service (crash) via a malformed WMF file, which triggers the crash when the user browses the folder.
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 confidenceA denial of service vulnerability exists in Windows Explorer on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. When a user browses to a folder containing a specially crafted malformed WMF (Windows Metafile) file, Windows Explorer crashes. The attack requires user-assisted interaction, specifically that the user navigates to the folder containing the malicious file.
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 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
- M
- Authentication
- None
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- Complete
AV:N/AC:M/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 operating system versionRun 'winver' command or check System Properties to determine if the OS is Windows XP or Windows Server 2003Affected if Operating system is Windows XP or Windows Server 2003
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Confirm Windows Explorer is the active shellCheck if Windows Explorer (explorer.exe) is running as the default shell or file manager. Run 'tasklist | findstr explorer.exe' to verify the process is activeAffected if Windows Explorer is the default file manager and shell environment
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Verify WMF thumbnail preview is enabledCheck if Windows Explorer is configured to generate thumbnails for image files. In Folder Options, verify 'Display file icon on thumbnails' is enabled, which triggers WMF parsingAffected if Thumbnail preview or Explorer preview pane is enabled and accessible to untrusted folders
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Scan for malformed WMF files in accessible directoriesUse a file scanner or manually inspect folders that could contain untrusted files. WMF files have .wmf extension. A malformed WMF file would have unexpected header bytes or corrupted structureAffected if A specially crafted malformed WMF file exists in a folder that the user would browse with Windows Explorer
User is affected if running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 with Windows Explorer as the shell, and a specially crafted malformed WMF file is present in a folder that the user navigates to using Windows Explorer.
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 dataSince Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are end-of-life and no longer receive security updates, the primary mitigation is to migrate to supported operating systems. Until migration is complete, users should avoid browsing folders from untrusted or unknown sources.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation40.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2007-1090 — 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-2007-1090 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