CVE-2019-1649
Cisco Secure Boot Hardware Tampering Vulnerability
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- cisco
Description
A vulnerability in the logic that handles access control to one of the hardware components in Cisco's proprietary Secure Boot implementation could allow an authenticated, local attacker to write a modified firmware image to the component. This vulnerability affects multiple Cisco products that support hardware-based Secure Boot functionality. The vulnerability is due to an improper check on the area of code that manages on-premise updates to a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) part of the Secure Boot hardware implementation. An attacker with elevated privileges and access to the underlying operating system that is running on the affected device could exploit this vulnerability by writing a modified firmware image to the FPGA. A successful exploit could either cause the device to become unusable (and require a hardware replacement) or allow tampering with the Secure Boot verification process, which under some circumstances may allow the attacker to install and boot a malicious software image. An attacker will need to fulfill all the following conditions to attempt to exploit this vulnerability: Have privileged administrative access to the device. Be able to access the underlying operating system running on the device; this can be achieved either by using a supported, documented mechanism or by exploiting another vulnerability that would provide an attacker with such access. Develop or have access to a platform-specific exploit. An attacker attempting to exploit this vulnerability across multiple affected platforms would need to research each one of those platforms and then develop a platform-specific exploit. Although the research process could be reused across different platforms, an exploit developed for a given hardware platform is unlikely to work on a different hardware platform.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| ciscoCNA (assigner) | 3.0 | Medium6.7 | CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium6.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.61% · top 51% of all CVEs (5 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.7.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected unspecified – < 16.12.1
What to do
Exploitation: This vulnerability was publicly disclosed by Red Balloon Security on May 13, 2019.
References (4)
- 20190513 Cisco Secure Boot Hardware Tampering Vulnerability (opens in a new tab)vendor-advisoryx_refsource_CISCOx_transferred
- VU#400865 (opens in a new tab)third-party-advisoryx_refsource_CERT-VNx_transferred
- 108350 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_BIDx_transferred
- https://www.us-cert.gov/ics/advisories/icsa-20-072-03 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2019-1649)Record last updated .