CVE-2019-18988
Is CVE-2019-18988 real, exploitable, or a false positive? Here's the community verdict.
Community verdict: No field verdicts yet. Be the first practitioner to weigh in.
signals
public sources
Confirmed exploited in the wild. Patch this first, regardless of the base score.
cisa ssvc
CISA Vulnrichment · assessed
CISA decision, by how critical the affected system is to you:
- low impact → Track
- medium impact → Track
- high impact → Attend
Track: normal patch cycle · Track*: watch closely · Attend: patch sooner · Act: patch now. About SSVC ↗
public exploits
links to sources — we don’t host codeUnverified proof-of-concept code has been published. It may or may not be functional — assess before relying on it.
baseline read
auto · not a community verdict
Real — exploited in the wild
CISA confirms active exploitation. Treat scanner hits as true positives unless your specific version or config is unaffected.
Based on CISA KEV
Confirm or dispute →CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
TeamViewer Desktop through 14.7.1965 allows a bypass of remote-login access control because the same key is used for different customers' installations. It used a shared AES key for all installations since at least as far back as v7.0.43148, and used it for at least OptionsPasswordAES in the current version of the product. If an attacker were to know this key, they could decrypt protect information stored in the registry or configuration files of TeamViewer. With versions before v9.x , this allowed for attackers to decrypt the Unattended Access password to the system (which allows for remote login to the system as well as headless file browsing). The latest version still uses the same key for OptionPasswordAES but appears to have changed how the Unattended Access password is stored. While in most cases an attacker requires an existing session on a system, if the registry/configuration keys were stored off of the machine (such as in a file share or online), an attacker could then decrypt the required password to login to the system.
References
Published · Added to CISA KEV (635 days after publication)
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timeline
- CISA SSVC assessment · exploitation: active
- Added to VulnCheck KEV · reported exploited in the wild
- Added to CISA KEV · confirmed exploited in the wild
- Published by NVD
Score and exploit changes tracked since .
Community ground truth
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In your experience, is this finding real and exploitable?
awaiting field verdictsCurated baseline: TruePositive's read from public sources is Real & exploitable — a starting point, not a community verdict.
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Field notes & remediation
Verdicts are the quick signal. Notes are the evidence and fixes behind them.
- 0
TeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerability — TeamViewer Desktop allows for bypass of remote-login access control because the same AES key is used for different customers' installations. If an attacker were to know this key, they could decrypt protected information stored in registry or configuration files or decryption of the Unattended Access password to the system (which allows for remote login to the system). Listed in the CISA KEV catalog (added 2021-11-03) — confirmed exploited in the wild, not theoretical. FIRST EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at ~5%. Treat it as real and prioritize remediation over triage.
- 0
Required action for TeamViewer Desktop: Apply updates per vendor instructions. CISA set a federal remediation due date of 2022-05-03. After patching, verify the vulnerable path is no longer reachable before closing the finding.