CVE-2005-3981
NOTE: this issue has been disputed by third parties. Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, and 2003 allows local users to kill a writable process by…
- 4.9MediumCVSS base score
- 3.6%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 10% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- 1Public exploitsMetasploit, Nuclei and Exploit-DB
Description
NOTE: this issue has been disputed by third parties. Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, and 2003 allows local users to kill a writable process by using the CreateRemoteThread function with certain arguments on a process that has been opened using the OpenProcess function, possibly involving an invalid address for the start routine. NOTE: followup posts have disputed this issue, saying that if a user already has privileges to write to a process, then other functions could be called or the process could be terminated using PROCESS_TERMINATE
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. The public collections list an Exploit-DB entry for it.
Show the exploits1
Exploit-DB1 entry
- Microsoft Windows XP/2000/2003 - CreateRemoteThread Local Denial of Service (Exploit-DB entry) (opens in a new tab)
EDB-ID 26690dos, windowspublished 1 Dec 2005Verified
Modules, templates and exploits as listed by the Metasploit Framework (BSD-3-Clause), ProjectDiscovery's Nuclei templates (MIT) and the Exploit Database (GPLv2), read once a day. Where the data comes from
Timeline
ID reserved
By mitre
Published
- 19 years later
· 19 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 2.0 | Medium4.9 | AV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:C |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 3.6% · top 10% of all CVEs (10 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 4.9.
Affected products
n/a
- affected n/a
References
3
- 15671 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- 20051201 Microsoft Windows CreateRemoteThread Exploit (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
- 20051202 Microsoft Windows CreateRemoteThread Exploit (opens in a new tab)mailing-listx_refsource_BUGTRAQx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2005-3976 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2005-3981)Record last updated .