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PrivoxyApplication

CVE-2015-1201

MEDIUM · 5.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-01-20
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 3.0.21 or later.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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 · unedited
Privoxy before 3.0.22 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (file descriptor consumption) via unspecified vectors. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained solely from third party information.

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 · low confidence

Privoxy before version 3.0.22 contains a denial of service vulnerability where remote attackers can exhaust file descriptors through unspecified vectors, causing the service to become unavailable.

MitigationUpgrade Privoxy to version 3.0.22 or later to address the file descriptor consumption vulnerability. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, implement rate limiting and connection throttling as a temporary mitigation.

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
PrivoxyApplication
Affected:<= 3.0.21

CVSS 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
Partial

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Privoxy version via command line
    Run `privoxy --version` or `privoxy -v` to display the installed version number
    Affected if The version displayed is 3.0.21 or earlier
  2. Check Privoxy version via package manager
    On Debian/Ubuntu run `dpkg -l privoxy`; on RHEL/CentOS run `rpm -q privoxy`
    Affected if The listed version is 3.0.21 or earlier
  3. Verify Privoxy is running
    Check process status with `ps aux | grep privoxy` or `systemctl status privoxy`
    Affected if Privoxy is running and the version cannot be determined or is confirmed as 3.0.21 or earlier
  4. Check binary version directly
    Use `/usr/sbin/privoxy --version` or locate the privoxy binary with `which privoxy` and run it with `--version`
    Affected if Version output shows 3.0.21 or lower

You are affected if Privoxy is installed and its version is 3.0.21 or any earlier version.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 3.0.21
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Privoxy to version 3.0.22 or later to address the file descriptor consumption vulnerability. If upgrading is not immediately feasible, implement rate limiting and connection throttling as a temporary mitigation.

Fix this in Privoxy Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,720
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,752.

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2015-1201 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

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.

What belongs here
  • 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