CVE-2013-5959
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 · uneditedBlue Coat ProxySG before 6.2.14.1, 6.3.x, 6.4.x, and 6.5 before 6.5.2 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (memory consumption and dropped connections) via a recursive href in an HTML page, which triggers a large number of HTTP RW pipeline pre-fetch requests.
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 confidenceBlue Coat ProxySG devices before 6.2.14.1 and 6.5.2 suffer from a denial of service vulnerability where recursive href links in HTML pages trigger excessive HTTP RW pipeline pre-fetch requests, causing memory exhaustion and dropped connections.
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= 5.4= 5.3= 5.5= 6.1= 6.2= 6.3= 6.4= 6.5<= 5.3CVSS 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.
-
Check ProxySG firmware versionLog into the ProxySG CLI and run 'show version' or access the web management interface and navigate to Statistics > General > Version. Note the full firmware version number displayed.Affected if The version number is 6.2.x below 6.2.14.1, or 6.5.x below 6.5.2, or any version 5.3.x, 5.4.x, 5.5.x, 6.1.x, 6.3.x, or 6.4.x listed in the affected products.
-
Verify HTTP RW pipeline pre-fetch is enabledIn the ProxySG web interface, go to Configuration > Proxy Settings > HTTP > General. Look for a setting related to 'HTTP pipeline pre-fetch' or 'RW pipeline'. In CLI, use 'show http' to view HTTP-related settings.Affected if The HTTP pipeline pre-fetch feature is enabled on the ProxySG.
-
Confirm the ProxySG processes HTML contentVerify that the ProxySG is configured to proxy HTTP traffic. Check via Configuration > Proxy Settings > HTTP or by running 'show proxy' in CLI to confirm HTTP proxy service is active.Affected if The ProxySG is actively serving as an HTTP proxy for client requests.
You are affected if your ProxySG firmware version is any of 5.3.x, 5.4.x, 5.5.x, 6.1.x, 6.2.x before 14.1, 6.3.x, 6.4.x, or 6.5.x before 2, AND the HTTP pipeline pre-fetch feature is enabled while the device proxies HTTP traffic.
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 Blue Coat ProxySG to version 6.2.14.1, 6.5.2, or later; if immediate patching is not feasible, implement content filtering at the network perimeter to block pages with recursive href patterns.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,984.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2013-5959 — 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-2013-5959 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