CVE-2019-18988
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).
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.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H- community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264Vendor Advisory
- community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=SecurityBroken LinkVendor Advisory
- twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20Third Party Advisory
- whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/ExploitThird Party Advisory
- cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-18988US Government Resource
Actively exploited. Patch immediately.
- Exploitation
- Confirmed in the wild (CISA KEV)
- Federal remediation deadline
- Overdue by 1637 days
- CVSS
- 7.0 HIGH
- EPSS (30-day exploit probability)
- 4.7% · top 8% of all CVEs
- Weakness
- CWE-521
- 1.Apply updates per vendor instructions.
- 2.Treat as emergency change: patch or isolate internet-facing instances first.
- 3.Hunt for compromise: review logs for the disclosure window, not just from the patch date.
Assessment is derived automatically from the live signals above; verify against your own asset inventory.