CVE-2019-17151
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 · uneditedThis vulnerability allows remote attackers redirect users to an external resource on affected installations of Tencent WeChat Prior to 7.0.9. User interaction is required to exploit this vulnerability in that the target must be within a chat session together with the attacker. The specific flaw exists within the parsing of a users profile. The issue lies in the failure to properly validate a users name. An attacker can leverage this in conjunction with other vulnerabilities to execute code in the context of the current process. Was ZDI-CAN-9302.
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 confidenceTencent WeChat prior to 7.0.9 fails to properly validate user profile names during parsing, allowing an attacker in a chat session to inject malicious redirect URLs into their profile name. This open redirect can be chained with other vulnerabilities to achieve code execution.
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< 7.0.9CVSS 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
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm WeChat installation existsCheck for WeChat executable on the system. Common installation paths: %ProgramFiles%\Tencent\WeChat\WeChat.exe or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Tencent\WeChat\WeChat.exe. Use 'dir /s C:\WeChat.exe 2>nul' or search for the file.Affected if WeChat is not found on the system (not affected)
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Retrieve installed WeChat versionRight-click WeChat.exe, select Properties, then view the Details tab for Version information. Alternatively, run 'wmic datafile where "name='C:\\Program Files\\Tencent\\WeChat\\WeChat.exe'" get Version' (adjust path if different).Affected if Unable to retrieve version information (status unknown)
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Compare version against vulnerability thresholdCompare the detected version number to 7.0.9. The vulnerable range is any version lower than 7.0.9 (for example: 7.0.8, 7.0.7, 7.0.5, 6.x.x, etc.).Affected if Version is below 7.0.9 (for example 7.0.8 or lower)
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Note: This is a client-side vulnerabilityThe open redirect requires a user to receive a chat message from an attacker who has set a malicious profile name. The defender must also be using WeChat and viewing the attacker's profile to trigger the redirect.Affected if The user interacts with the attacker in a WeChat chat session and views the attacker's profile name
You are affected if WeChat version is installed and is lower than 7.0.9, and you engage in chat sessions where an attacker could set a malicious profile name.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 data7.0.9
Upgrade WeChat to version 7.0.9 or later to receive the vendor patch that properly validates profile name input.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Testing1.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-17151 — 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 sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-17151 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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