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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.1

CVE-2004-0474 json

Help Center (HelpCtr.exe) may allow remote attackers to read or execute arbitrary files via an "http://" or "file://" argument to the topic…

published 2004-05-20 22 y ago modified 2026-06-16 4 mo ago also EUVD-2004-0473

cvss
5.1
version 2.0, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
16.2%
EPSS 16.2% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 96%
public exploits
1
Exploit-DB

Summary

Help Center (HelpCtr.exe) may allow remote attackers to read or execute arbitrary files via an "http://" or "file://" argument to the topic parameter in an hcp:// URL. NOTE: since the initial report of this problem, several researchers have been unable to reproduce this issue.

Timeline

  1. First public exploit (EDB-23675)
  2. Published

Exploit prediction

16.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 96% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • EDB-23675 Microsoft Windows XP - HCP URI Handler Arbitrary Command Execution remote, 2004-02-09
  • securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/9621 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • securityfocus.com http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/353248 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
  • archives.neohapsis.com http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2004-02/0440.html referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
NVD 2.0 5.1 AV:N/AC:H/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.