# CVE-2005-2225: Denial of service in n/a

> Remote attackers can cause denial of service in MSN Messenger by sending messages containing the .pif string, kicking users from group conversations.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.0 (`AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Over the internet
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 12 Jul 2005
- **Updated:** 7 Aug 2024
- **Also known as:** GHSA-w98q-42v6-vmmg

## What is CVE-2005-2225?

CVE-2005-2225 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 12 Jul 2005. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

Microsoft MSN Messenger allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service via a plaintext message containing the ".pif" string, which is interpreted as a malicious file extension and causes users to be kicked from a group conversation. NOTE: it has been reported that Gaim is also affected, so this may be an issue in the protocol or MSN servers.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2005-2225?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Microsoft Msn Messenger Service.

## How do I fix CVE-2005-2225?

No fix has been published for CVE-2005-2225 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2005-2225 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-2225 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2005-2225 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2005-2225 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in n/a, published on 12 Jul 2005. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2005-2225 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: n/a. 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-2005-2225/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2225/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2005-2225
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2005-2225
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2005-2225

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2005-2225/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.