CVE-2010-5077
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 · uneditedserver/sv_main.c in Quake3 Arena, as used in ioquake3 before r1762, OpenArena, Tremulous, and other products, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (network traffic amplification) via a spoofed (1) getstatus or (2) rcon request.
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 Quake3 Arena server (sv_main.c) in ioquake3 and derivatives has an amplification vulnerability where spoofed getstatus or rcon requests cause the server to send larger responses to the forged source IP, enabling reflection/amplification DDoS attacks. The fix was implemented in ioquake3 r1762.
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<= r1761all versionsall 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.
-
Identify if a Quake3-based game server is runningLook for running processes related to ioquake3, OpenArena, or Tremulous servers. On Linux, use 'ps aux | grep -E "(ioquake3|openarena|tremulous|quake3)"' or check for processes listening on common Quake3 ports (27960, 27961).Affected if A server process matching ioquake3, OpenArena, or Tremulous is running and exposed to the network.
-
Determine the installed version of the game serverIf an ioquake3 server is found, check its version by querying the server status via rcon or connecting to it. For OpenArena or Tremulous, check the installed package versions or binaries. Compare your version against the affected range (ioquake3 <= r1761, OpenArena/Tremulous all versions).Affected if The server version is ioquake3 r1761 or earlier, or any version of OpenArena or Tremulous.
-
Verify network exposure of the game server portCheck if the server is listening on UDP ports typically used by Quake3 engines (27960, 27961, or custom ports). Use 'netstat -uan' or 'ss -uan' to list UDP listeners. Confirm the server is reachable from external networks rather than only bound to localhost.Affected if The server is listening on a public-facing UDP port and accepts getstatus or rcon requests from untrusted sources.
-
Test for amplification behaviorSend a crafted getstatus request packet to the server's public IP and port using a tool like 'netcat' or 'sendip'. Observe the response size. A vulnerable server will respond with a significantly larger packet than the request.Affected if The server responds to a small spoofed request with a response that is substantially larger (amplification factor), enabling reflection attacks.
You are affected if you are running an ioquake3 server at version r1761 or earlier, or any version of OpenArena or Tremulous, that is exposed to the network and accepts getstatus or rcon requests from untrusted sources.
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 affected game servers (ioquake3, OpenArena, Tremulous) to version r1762 or later, and/or implement network-level ingress filtering (anti-spoofing) to block spoofed packets at the perimeter.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,424.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2010-5077 — 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-2010-5077 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
Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.
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