CVE-2003-0838

Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v2.0)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 37.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2003-11-17 · updated 2026-06-16

Description

Internet Explorer allows remote attackers to bypass zone restrictions to inject and execute arbitrary programs by creating a popup window and inserting ActiveX object code with a "data" tag pointing to the malicious code, which Internet Explorer treats as HTML or Javascript, but later executes as an HTA application, a different vulnerability than CVE-2003-0532, and as exploited using the QHosts Trojan horse (aka Trojan.Qhosts, QHosts-1, VBS.QHOSTS, or aolfix.exe).

Affected products

Microsoft Ie: 6.0-sp1
Microsoft Internet Explorer 11: 5.0.1, 5.0.1-sp1, 5.0.1-sp2, 5.0.1-sp3, 5.5, 5.5-sp1 (+2)

References

http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2003-September/009639.html
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106304733121753&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=bugtraq&m=106304876523459&w=2
http://marc.info/?l=ntbugtraq&m=106302799428500&w=2
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html
http://www.ntbugtraq.com/default.asp?pid=36&sid=1&A2=ind0310&L=ntbugtraq&F=P&S=&P=2169
http://www.osvdb.org/7872
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/8556
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2003/ms03-040
https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/13314
https://oval.cisecurity.org/repository/search/definition/oval%3Aorg.mitre.oval%3Adef%3A204
http://lists.grok.org.uk/pipermail/full-disclosure/2003-September/009639.html

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