Microsoft Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and earlier, when gestual emoticons are enabled, allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service (CPU consumption) via a long string composed of ":D" sequences, which are interpreted as emoticons.
Conclusion & alert: CVE-2006-6252 is rated Moderate Risk (47.8/100): CVSS Medium severity, with high exploitation likelihood (EPSS 10.57%, 95th percentile). Core evidence: EPSS ranks this CVE among the most likely to be exploited in the near term. Mandatory action: High exploitation likelihood—assess exposure and prioritize remediation.
Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.
EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).
| # | Date | Old EPSS score | New EPSS score | Delta (New - Old) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2026-06-15 | 13.29% | 10.57% | -2.72% |
| 2 | 2025-12-28 | 12.87% | 13.29% | +0.42% |
| 3 | 2025-09-14 | — | 12.87% | — |
Full EPSS history (13 records total)
CVSS metrics for this CVE.
| Base score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability | Impact | Score source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.3 | 2.0 | MEDIUM |
|
8.6 | 2.9 | [email protected] |
| vendor | priority | summary | link |
|---|---|---|---|
alpine
|
— | CVE-2006-6252: no source package rows; 0 state rows across 0 repos (none); fixed 0, open 0. | https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2006-6252 |
| Vendor | Product | Version | Raw CPE |
|---|---|---|---|
| microsoft | windows_live_messenger | <= 8.0 | cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:windows_live_messenger:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |