OverwatchApplication · Blizzard

CVE-2017-14748

MEDIUM · 5.3 CVSS v3.0 Published 2017-09-26
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
59/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable 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
Race condition in Blizzard Overwatch 1.15.0.2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (season bans and SR losses for other users) by leaving a competitive match at a specific time during the initial loading of that match.

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 · moderate confidence

A race condition in Blizzard Overwatch 1.15.0.2 competitive match handling allows authenticated players to cause denial of service against other players by disconnecting at a precise moment during initial match loading, triggering incorrect season bans and skill rating losses for teammates/opponents.

MitigationThe vulnerability requires a server-side fix from Blizzard to implement proper synchronization in the match initialization logic and validate disconnection timing before applying competitive penalties.

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
OverwatchApplication
Affected:= 1.15.0.2

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
High
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

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 Overwatch client version
    Open Battle.net client, select Overwatch, and view the version number under the game title. Alternatively, launch Overwatch and check the version in the bottom-right corner of the main menu.
    Affected if Version displayed is exactly 1.15.0.2
  2. Verify competitive mode is active
    Check if the user has played or is currently in a competitive season. Open the competitive play menu to see if competitive matches are available.
    Affected if Competitive mode is enabled and matches can be played
  3. Inspect match history for anomalous penalties
    Review recent competitive match history in the Career Profile, specifically looking for unexpected season bans or skill rating (SR) losses that occurred during the relevant time period.
    Affected if Unexpected bans or SR losses appear in competitive match history without corresponding match defeats

You are affected only if your Overwatch client is exactly version 1.15.0.2 and you have participated in competitive matches during that version's active period.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

The vulnerability requires a server-side fix from Blizzard to implement proper synchronization in the match initialization logic and validate disconnection timing before applying competitive penalties.

Fix this in Overwatch Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation16.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
32.0 hours of engineering $5,600
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
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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-2017-14748 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