CVE-2019-18988 — TeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerability

CVE-2019-18988 (TeamViewer Desktop) is in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog since 2021-11-03. TeamViewer Desktop allows for bypass of remote-login access control because the same AES key is used for… See the required fix, due date and advisories.

Exploitation status

CVE-2019-18988 is listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, added 2021-11-03. 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).

Advisory facts

Vendor or project
TeamViewer
Affected product
Desktop
Added to CISA KEV
2021-11-03
US federal remediation due date
2022-05-03
Ransomware association
Unknown
EPSS score
—
Weakness (CWE)
CWE-521

Remediation: the required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Wording published by CISA for this catalog entry. It is the baseline action, not a decision about your environment: whether this exposure matters for you depends on where the affected component runs, what it is exposed to and who owns it.

From advisory to a decision you can defend

A catalog entry tells you a vulnerability is being exploited somewhere. It does not tell you whether it matters in your estate, who owns the fix, or what evidence an auditor will ask for later. That is the work VulnTrek does: it takes findings from the tools you already run, decides which exposure actually matters, routes it to an owner, keeps remediation human-approved and retains the lineage as evidence.

Sourced from public upstream advisories (CISA KEV, ENISA EUVD, vendor PSIRTs) mirrored daily. Informational only — not a remediation decision, not legal advice, and the absence of a record is not evidence of safety.