CVE-2019-18988
7, high Known exploitedTeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerability
- CVSS
- 7, high high CVSS v3.1
- EPSS, next 30 days
- 5% higher than 91.6% of scored CVEs
- Exploitation
- Confirmed in the wild
- Published
- 7 Feb 20206 years ago
Known exploited
CISA added this to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog on 3 Nov 2021. US federal agencies had to remediate by 3 May 2022, a deadline that has passed.
Required action. Apply updates per vendor instructions.
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.
Details
- Vendor
- TeamViewer
- Product
- Teamviewer
- Weakness
- CWE-521 (opens in a new tab)
- Status
- Analyzed
- Updated
- 17 Jun 2026
- Assigner
- cve@mitre.org
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References 5
Exploit code 1
Advisories 3
- community.teamviewer.com /t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264 (opens in a new tab)
- community.teamviewer.com /t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=Security (opens in a new tab)
- twitter.com /Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20 (opens in a new tab)
The kind is read from NVD's tags where present and from the shape of the URL otherwise, so treat it as a hint.
Beyond this page
Is CVE-2019-18988 in your network?
This page tells you how dangerous CVE-2019-18988 is out there. Whether it sits on one of your devices, only a scan of your own network can tell. That is what our systems do, every day, for the companies we protect.
CVE-2019-18988 is in the CISA catalogue of exploited vulnerabilities: attackers are already exploiting it.
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Assembled from the NVD 2.0 API, the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog and FIRST EPSS. Scores are as of our last collection on 17 Oct 2026, not the live upstream state.