CVE-2001-1497: Microsoft Ie

Low severity, CVSS 2.1. EPSS: 2% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 through 6.0 could allow local users to differentiate between alphanumeric and non-alphanumeric characters used in a password by pressing certain control keys that jump between non-alphanumeric characters, which makes it easier to conduct a brute-force password guessing attack.

Affected products

• Microsoft Ie: version 4.0 only; version 4.0.1 only; version 4.1 only
• Microsoft Internet Explorer: version 4.0 only; version 4.0.1 only; version 5.5 only; version 6.0 only

Published 2001-12-31. Last modified 2026-06-16.