CVE-2004-0683 in Norton Antivirus
Summary
by MITRE
Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2002 and 2003 allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a compressed archive that contains a large number of directories.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/12/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-0683 represents a significant denial of service weakness in Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2002 and 2003 products. This flaw specifically targets the decompression handling mechanism within the antivirus software, creating a condition where maliciously crafted compressed archives can trigger excessive cpu utilization. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and resource management during the processing of archive files, particularly those containing an excessive number of directories. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting compressed archives with numerous nested directories, causing the antivirus software to consume disproportionate system resources while attempting to decompress and scan the malicious content. The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption as it can effectively render the affected system unusable through sustained high cpu consumption, potentially leading to complete system unresponsiveness. This type of vulnerability falls under the broader category of resource exhaustion attacks that can be classified as CWE-400, which specifically addresses unspecified resource exhaustion conditions. The operational impact of this vulnerability is particularly concerning given that Norton AntiVirus was widely deployed across enterprise environments, making organizations susceptible to coordinated attacks that could bring critical systems to a halt. The attack vector involves remote exploitation through the processing of compressed files, which could occur during automated scanning processes or when users inadvertently open maliciously crafted archives. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks targeting system resources. The root cause of this issue lies in the insufficient validation of archive structures and the lack of proper resource limits during decompression operations within the antivirus engine. Organizations using these vulnerable versions of Norton AntiVirus faced significant operational risks as the vulnerability could be exploited without requiring any special privileges or authentication. The exploitability of this vulnerability is relatively straightforward, requiring only the creation of a compressed archive with numerous directories, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking to disrupt services. The vulnerability demonstrates a classic example of poor input sanitization and inadequate resource management in security software, where the defensive mechanisms become the source of the attack vector. System administrators and security teams needed to implement immediate mitigations including updating to patched versions of the software, implementing network segmentation to limit exposure, and monitoring for unusual cpu consumption patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability also highlighted the importance of proper resource management in security applications, as antivirus software should never consume excessive system resources during normal operation. This issue serves as a reminder that security tools themselves can become attack surfaces when not properly hardened against malformed inputs. The remediation process required organizations to ensure all instances of Norton AntiVirus 2002 and 2003 were updated to versions that addressed this specific decompression handling weakness, which typically involved implementing proper bounds checking and resource limits during archive processing. Organizations that failed to patch this vulnerability remained at risk of sustained denial of service attacks that could impact business operations and system availability. The incident underscored the critical need for comprehensive testing of security software against malformed inputs and the importance of implementing proper resource limits to prevent exploitation of such weaknesses.