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Deep Security As A ServiceApplication · Trendmicro

CVE-2019-18191

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-12-16
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
94/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

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
A privilege escalation vulnerability in the Trend Micro Deep Security as a Service Quick Setup cloud formation template could allow an authenticated entity with certain unrestricted AWS execution privileges to escalate to full privileges within the target AWS account.

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

The Trend Micro Deep Security as a Service Quick Setup CloudFormation template contains overly permissive IAM role configurations that allow an authenticated AWS entity with limited execution privileges to escalate to full administrative privileges within the target AWS account. The template grants excessive IAM permissions that can be exploited to gain additional rights.

MitigationRestrict IAM role permissions in the CloudFormation template to follow least-privilege principles, removing any overly broad permissions that could enable privilege escalation. Audit existing deployments and rotate credentials.

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
Deep Security As A ServiceApplication
Affected:all versions

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
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

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

  1. Identify Deep Security CloudFormation deployments
    In the AWS CloudFormation console, review stacks with names containing 'DeepSecurity', 'TrendMicro', or similar. Alternatively, run: aws cloudformation list-stacks --stack-status-filter CREATE_COMPLETE UPDATE_COMPLETE and grep for Deep Security related stack names.
    Affected if A CloudFormation stack named 'Deep Security' or 'Trend Micro' with Quick Setup template exists in the account
  2. Locate IAM roles created by Deep Security template
    Run: aws iam list-roles --query 'Roles[?contains(RoleName, `DeepSecurity`) || contains(RoleName, `TrendMicro`) || contains(RoleName, `DS`)]' to find IAM roles created during Deep Security deployment. Note the role names and ARNs.
    Affected if IAM roles with names related to Deep Security exist in the account
  3. Examine IAM role trust relationships
    Run: aws iam get-role --role-name [ROLE_NAME] --query 'Role.AssumeRolePolicyDocument' for each Deep Security related role. Review which AWS entities are allowed to assume these roles.
    Affected if The trust policy allows broader set of principals than expected (such as any authenticated user or cross-account access)
  4. Review IAM role permissions policies
    Run: aws iam list-role-policies --role-name [ROLE_NAME] and aws iam list-attached-role-policies --role-name [ROLE_NAME] to identify all managed and inline policies. Then run: aws iam get-role-policy --role-name [ROLE_NAME] --policy-name [POLICY_NAME] for inline policies, or: aws iam get-policy --policy-arn [ARN] for managed policies to inspect the actual permissions granted.
    Affected if Policies grant overly broad IAM permissions such as iam:*Role*, iam:AttachUserPolicy, or iam:PassRole to any resource
  5. Check for privilege escalation paths
    Review the IAM permissions attached to the Deep Security roles for actions that could enable privilege escalation, such as: iam:CreateUser, iam:AttachUserPolicy, iam:PutUserPolicy, iam:CreateAccessKey, iam:PassRole combined with other IAM write actions, or any permission allowing modification of other IAM entities.
    Affected if The IAM role has permissions that allow an attacker with limited execution privileges to gain additional rights beyond what they were granted

A user is affected if they have deployed the Trend Micro Deep Security as a Service Quick Setup CloudFormation template and the resulting IAM roles contain overly broad permissions that could be exploited for privilege escalation.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict IAM role permissions in the CloudFormation template to follow least-privilege principles, removing any overly broad permissions that could enable privilege escalation. Audit existing deployments and rotate credentials.

Fix this in Deep Security As A Service Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation5.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
13.0 hours of engineering $2,310
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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-2019-18191 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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