CVE-2019-18988
Actively exploited. CVE-2019-18988 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog (added 2021-11-03) — exploitation has been observed in the wild, and US federal agencies are required to remediate it under BOD 22-01. Treat patching as urgent.
Public exploit code is available. Proof-of-concept or working exploit code for CVE-2019-18988 is indexed in Metasploit and GitHub PoC. Expect opportunistic scanning and exploitation attempts — prioritize remediation.
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).
CSIRTS triage
- What
- The vulnerability allows bypass of remote-login access control due to shared AES keys across installations.
- Who is affected
- Users of TeamViewer Desktop are affected.
- Urgency
- Remediation is critical as the vulnerability is actively exploited and poses significant risks.
- Action
- Update to the latest version of TeamViewer.
AI-assisted analysis generated from the source advisory — verify against the original.
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Exploitation outlook
- Exploitation confirmedAlready exploited in the wild (CISA KEV) — the prediction phase is over. Patch now. Riskier than 91% of all EPSS-scored CVEs.
Exploit availability
Public exploit or proof-of-concept code for CVE-2019-18988 is indexed in these free datasets. Available exploit code raises real-world risk independent of the CVSS score.
- MetasploitA Metasploit Framework module targets this CVE — weaponized, point-and-click exploitation.look it up ↗
- GitHub PoCPublic proof-of-concept repositories on GitHub reference this CVE.look it up ↗
Advisory coverage (1)
- criticalexploitedCVE-2019-18988: TeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerabilitycisa-kev · 2021-11-03
External references
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[](https://www.csirts.com/cve/CVE-2019-18988)