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

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities

Name

TeamViewer Desktop Bypass Remote Login Vulnerability

Vendor

TeamViewer

Product

Desktop

Added to the catalog

2021-11-03

Due date for US federal agencies

2022-05-03

Weaknesses

CWE-521

Catalog version

2026.10.30

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).

Required action (CISA)

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

Ransomware use: CISA does not mark known use of this vulnerability in ransomware campaigns.

Links in CISA's notes

• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-18988

Read on 2026-11-02T23:39:54.475Z under licence cisa-kev-cc0@b0067899 from https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/feeds/known_exploited_vulnerabilities.json

NVD analysis

Status

Analyzed

Published

2020-02-07T16:15:10.033

Last modified

2026-06-17T02:25:42.777

Weaknesses

CWE-521

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.

References

• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264 (Vendor Advisory)
• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=Security (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory)
• https://twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264 (Vendor Advisory)
• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=Security (Broken Link, Vendor Advisory)
• https://twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20 (Third Party Advisory)
• https://whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/ (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
• https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2019-18988 (US Government Resource)

This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.

Read on 2026-11-02T23:41:43.468Z under licence nvd-api-terms-of-use@ff2a5288 from https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2019-18988

CVE record

Assigner

mitre

State

PUBLISHED

Published

2020-02-07T15:09:36.000Z

Updated

2025-10-21T23:35:52.116Z

Problem types

n/a

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.

References

• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/tkb-p/Knowledgebase?threadtype=label&labels=Security
• https://whynotsecurity.com/blog/teamviewer/
• https://twitter.com/Blurbdust/status/1224212682594770946?s=20
• https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Announcements/Specification-on-CVE-2019-18988/td-p/82264

Read on 2026-11-03T01:01:50.137Z under licence cve-terms-of-use@81bfa2f3 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/main/cves/2019/18xxx/CVE-2019-18988.json

Defensive techniques (MITRE D3FEND)

D3FEND maps these defensive techniques to the weakness (CWE) that NVD lists for this CVE, through the digital artifacts the weakness affects. D3FEND does not say they stop this vulnerability.

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