What is CVE-2019-18659?

CVE-2019-18659 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ready Wireless Emergency Alerts, classified under Authentication Bypass by Spoofing. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2019-11-02.

How severe is CVE-2019-18659?

Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Ready Wireless Emergency Alerts

CVE-2019-18659

The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) protocol allows remote attackers to spoof a Presidential Alert because cryptographic authentication is not used, as demonstrated by MessageIdentifier 4370 in LTE System Information Block 12 (aka SIB12). NOTE: testing inside an RF-isolated shield box suggested that all LTE phones are affected by design (e.g., use of Android versus iOS does not matter); testing in an open RF environment is, of course, contraindicated.

EPSS: 0.010 (58.7th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.

Affected products

Ready Wireless_emergency_alerts
N/a — versions n/a

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-290 — Authentication Bypass by Spoofing

References

cve@mitre.org (Third Party Advisory, x_refsource_MISC)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-18659?: CVE-2019-18659 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Ready Wireless Emergency Alerts, classified under Authentication Bypass by Spoofing. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2019-11-02.
How severe is CVE-2019-18659?: Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.