CVE-2019-17668
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 · uneditedSamsung Galaxy S10 and Note10 devices allow unlock operations via unregistered fingerprints in certain situations involving a third-party screen protector.
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 · high confidenceThis vulnerability exists in Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note10 devices' ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. When certain third-party screen protectors are applied, the sensor's authentication logic can be bypassed, allowing the device to be unlocked using unregistered fingerprints due to altered sensor readings from the protector material.
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 dataall versionsall versionsCVSS 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
- Physical
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify device modelCheck the device settings under Settings > About Phone to confirm the model is Samsung Galaxy S10 (any variant) or Samsung Galaxy Note 10 (any variant)Affected if Device is a Samsung Galaxy S10 or Galaxy Note 10 of any firmware version
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Inspect for third-party screen protectorPhysically examine the device screen to determine if a screen protector is installed. Check packaging or ask the user if the protector is a Samsung OEM protector or a third-party productAffected if A third-party screen protector is currently applied to the device
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Verify fingerprint authentication behaviorEnroll a fingerprint, then attempt to unlock the device using an unregistered finger or a finger not enrolled to see if authentication succeeds when it should notAffected if The device unlocks with an unregistered fingerprint due to altered sensor readings from the protector
User is affected if they use a Samsung Galaxy S10 or Note10 device with a third-party screen protector installed, which can cause the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor to accept unregistered fingerprints.
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 dataRemove any third-party screen protector and apply the Samsung security patch released in October 2019, which addresses the fingerprint sensor authentication logic flaw.
- Consultation1.0 h
- Implementation1.0 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-2019-17668 — 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-2019-17668 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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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.
- 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