CVE-2019-18988
Teamviewer ≤ 14.7.1965
Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2019-18988 is a high-severity Weak Password Requirements (CWE-521) vulnerability in Teamviewer Teamviewer. Its CVSS base score is 7.0 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Brute Force (T1110); ranked in the top 9% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
TeamViewer Desktop through 14.7.1965 uses a single shared AES key for all installations, dating back at least to version 7.0.43148, to encrypt values such as OptionsPasswordAES in the registry and configuration files. This cryptographic reuse allows any party who recovers the key to decrypt customer-specific protected data, directly undermining the access-control mechanisms that rely on those encrypted values.
An attacker with local access or the ability to read exported configuration data can obtain the Unattended Access password on versions before 9.x, enabling remote login and headless file operations. Even on newer releases the same key still protects OptionPasswordAES, so offline registry or file-share copies of configuration data remain decryptable and usable for authentication. The vulnerability carries a CVSS 7.0 score reflecting local attack vector, high complexity, and high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
TeamViewer has published an official specification and related knowledge-base entries that describe the key-reuse behavior and the changes made to Unattended Access password storage. No further mitigation details beyond these advisories are provided in the available references.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2019-8642
Vulnerability Data
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…
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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.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 2 hardening rules · 1 OS baseline
V6.2.4V6.2.9V6.2.12V6.4.1
Likely Mitigating Controls AI
Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.
Configuration settings can define and enforce strong password requirements to avoid weak policies.
IA policy establishes password requirements, directly addressing weak password requirements.
Ensuring authenticators have sufficient strength of mechanism for intended use addresses weak password requirements.
Organization-wide password and authentication policies are applied uniformly, preventing weak local password requirements.
Facilitated training and awareness of current practices improves definition and enforcement of sufficiently strong password requirements.
Dedicated security resources support deployment of strong authentication systems and enforcement of robust password policies.
Vulnerability scans assess password policies and weak credential requirements against benchmarks.
User documentation on maintaining security includes password requirements, directly mitigating weak password policies.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Explicitly requires enforcing minimum password strength as part of authentication.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Enforcing minimum length, complexity, non-dictionary, and non-reuse rules directly counters weak password policies that allow attackers to guess or brute-force credentials.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
RHEL 7 (2 rules)
- V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-521
- V-204425 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must be configured so that the SSH daemon does not allow authentication using an empty password. prevents CWE-521