# CVE-2002-1908: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause CPU exhaustion and denial of service in Microsoft IIS by sending HTTP requests with excessive forward slashes in the Host header.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 28 Jun 2005
- **Updated:** 16 Sep 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-g3q8-m2f7-hmq4

## What is CVE-2002-1908?

CVE-2002-1908 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services, published on 28 Jun 2005. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Microsoft IIS 5.0 and 5.1 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via an HTTP request with a Host header that contains a large number of "/" (forward slash) characters.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2002-1908?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Microsoft Internet Information Services.

## How do I fix CVE-2002-1908?

No fix has been published for CVE-2002-1908 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2002-1908 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2002-1908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Information Services

- [CVE-2017-7269](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2017-7269/): Microsoft Windows Server Buffer Overflow (critical 9.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2010-3972](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2010-3972/): Memory corruption in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2008-4301](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2008-4301/): Other in n/a (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2007-2815](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2007-2815/): The "hit-highlighting" functionality in webhits.dll in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web Server 5.0 only uses Windows NT ACL (critical 10.0)
- [CVE-2003-0224](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2003-0224/): Buffer overflow in ssinc.dll for Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 allows local users to execute arbitrary code via a web pa (critical 10.0)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2002-1908 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2002-1908 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services, published on 28 Jun 2005. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2002-1908 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Microsoft Internet Information Services. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1908/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1908/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2002-1908
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2002-1908
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2002-1908

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2002-1908/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.