CVE-2019-18988
TeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerability
Does this matter?
Known to be exploited in the wild (CISA KEV, CISA remediation deadline 3 May 2022). Treat as an emergency change: patch or isolate now, then hunt for prior compromise.
Description
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
- 7.0 HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 4.71% probability · 91th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Listed 3 November 2021 · due 3 May 2022
- Weakness
- CWE-521
- Affected
- teamviewer/teamviewer
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
CISA notes
Apply updates per vendor instructions. https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-18988
References
- https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264Vendor Advisory
- https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=SecurityBroken Link, Vendor Advisory
- https://twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20Third Party Advisory
- https://whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264Vendor Advisory
- https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=SecurityBroken Link, Vendor Advisory
- https://twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20Third Party Advisory
- https://whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/Exploit, Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-18988US Government Resource
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.