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Vulnerabilities

Vulnerability · CVE-2004-1043

Microsoft Internet Explorer HTML Help ActiveX control Cross Domain Vulnerability

Published Jan 11, 2005 · catalog updated Jan 11, 2005 · Microsoft Internet Explorer

Patch now

CVE-2004-1043 is in the CISA known-exploited catalog. Confirm Microsoft Internet Explorer against the vendor advisory and apply that fix. The CVSS score does not change the priority.

Gaps on this record

  • No version range is stored. A customer cannot check an installed version against this record.
Severity
Unknown—
Known exploitation
CISA KEV and VulnCheck KEV
EPSS
44.98%
Remediation
Remediation guidance
Affected products
vendor Microsoft Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by using the "Related Topics" command in the Help ActiveX Control (hhctrl.ocx) to open a Help popup window containing the PCHealth tools.htm file in the local zone and injecting Javascript to be executed, as demonstrated using "writehta.txt" and the ADODB recordset, which saves a .HTA file to the local system, aka the "HTML Help ActiveX control Cross Domain Vulnerability."

Are you affected?

Enter the version you run. The result uses only the ranges stored on this record.

The check returns affected, not affected, or incomplete. It does not guess a version that is missing from the record.

  • vendor Microsoft Internet Explorerversion unspecified

How to fix CVE-2004-1043

What to do

Three questions, each answered from this record only. Confirm the vendor advisory before you patch.

Should you patch?

CVE-2004-1043 is in the CISA known-exploited catalog. Confirm Microsoft Internet Explorer against the vendor advisory and apply that fix. The CVSS score does not change the priority.

Which versions are affected?

Affected version ranges are not on this record. Apply remediations or mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if remediation or mitigations are unavailable.

What should an analyst verify?

No weakness class is stored. EPSS 44.98%. The CISA KEV listing is the exploitation evidence. No Exploit-DB or Metasploit reference is linked. Use the source links for the original advisory.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

No public source repository is identified for this product.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. Jan 11, 2005 · VulnCheck KEV

    Detected

    Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by using the "Related Topics" command in the Help ActiveX Control (hhctrl.ocx) to open a Help popup window containing the PCHealth tools.htm file in the local zone and injecting Javascript to be executed, as demonstrated using "writehta.txt" and the ADODB recordset, which saves a .HTA file to the local system

  2. Jan 11, 2005 · CISA KEV

    Known exploited

    Apply remediations or mitigations per vendor instructions or discontinue use of the product if remediation or mitigations are unavailable.

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2004-1043

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2004-1043

    30-day exploitation probability 45.0%

    first.org
  • VulnCheck KEVConfirmed exploitationCVE-2004-1043

    Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP SP2 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code by using the "Related Topics" command in the Help ActiveX Control (hhctrl.ocx) to open a Help popup window containing the PCHealth tools.htm file in the local zone and injecting Javascript t

    vulncheck.com

References

Freshness

Last verified in this catalog Oct 18, 2026. Significant claims (KEV, EPSS, CVSS, affected ranges) come from the source rows above — open the original publisher for the authoritative advisory.