Antivirus \+ Security 2020Application · Trendmicro

CVE-2019-15628

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-02
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 16.0.1221 or later.
See remediation →
81/100
Remediation priority · High
No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Trend Micro Security (Consumer) 2020 (v16.0.1221 and below) is affected by a DLL hijacking vulnerability that could allow an attacker to use a specific service as an execution and/or persistence mechanism which could execute a malicious program each time the service is started.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

DLL hijacking vulnerability in Trend Micro Security (Consumer) 2020 versions 16.0.1221 and below. An attacker can exploit this by placing a malicious DLL in a location where the affected service loads it, achieving code execution and persistence each time the service restarts.

MitigationUpdate Trend Micro Security 2020 to version 16.0.1222 or later via the product's built-in update mechanism or by downloading the latest version from the vendor.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Antivirus \+ Security 2020Application
Affected:<= 16.0.1221
Internet Security 2020Application
Affected:<= 16.0.1221
Maximum Security 2020Application
Affected:<= 16.0.1221
Premium Security 2020Application
Affected:<= 16.0.1221

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify Trend Micro Security 2020 product is installed
    Open Windows Control Panel and check the list of installed programs, or run 'Get-ItemProperty HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\* | Select-Object DisplayName, DisplayVersion' in PowerShell to enumerate installed software
    Affected if Any of the following products appear: Trendmicro Antivirus + Security 2020, Trendmicro Internet Security 2020, Trendmicro Maximum Security 2020, or Trendmicro Premium Security 2020
  2. Check installed product version
    Locate the Trend Micro product in the installed programs list and note the version number shown, or check the product's About/Help section within the application
    Affected if The version number is 16.0.1221 or lower
  3. Verify the vulnerable service is present
    Open Services (services.msc) and look for Trend Micro service entries such as 'Trend Micro Security Foundation' or 'Trend Micro Proxy Service', or run 'Get-Service | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -like "*Trend*"}' in PowerShell
    Affected if A Trend Micro service is found running on the system
  4. Inspect product directories for unauthorized DLLs
    Check the Trend Micro installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\ or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trend Micro\) for unexpected or recently modified DLL files that do not match known Trend Micro file signatures
    Affected if Unexpected DLL files exist in the product directories, particularly with recent timestamps or names mimicking system DLLs

A system is affected if it has any of the listed Trend Micro 2020 products installed with version 16.0.1221 or lower, and unauthorized DLLs may be present in the product directories indicating exploitation.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 16.0.1221
Interim mitigation

Update Trend Micro Security 2020 to version 16.0.1222 or later via the product's built-in update mechanism or by downloading the latest version from the vendor.

Fix this in Antivirus \+ Security 2020 Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-15628 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-15628 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data