CVE-2019-19548
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 · uneditedNorton Power Eraser, prior to 5.3.0.67, may be susceptible to a privilege escalation vulnerability, which is a type of issue whereby an attacker may attempt to compromise the software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user.
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 confidenceNorton Power Eraser versions prior to 5.3.0.67 contain a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows an attacker to gain elevated access to resources normally protected from the application. As a security tool designed to remove deeply embedded malware, this vulnerability could allow a local attacker to leverage the tool's existing elevated privileges for malicious purposes.
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< 5.3.0.67CVSS 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
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Locate Norton Power Eraser installationSearch for Norton Power Eraser in common installation directories such as Program Files, Program Files (x86), or the Norton folder within ProgramData. Look for an executable named NortonPowerEraser.exe or similar.Affected if The application is installed on the system
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Determine installed versionRight-click the Norton Power Eraser executable, select Properties, and navigate to the Details tab to view the File Version or Product Version. Alternatively, right-click and choose 'Check for updates' within the application to see the current version.Affected if The displayed version number is lower than 5.3.0.67
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Verify application runs with elevated privilegesLaunch Norton Power Eraser and observe whether it requests administrator privileges or runs with elevated token. This is inherent to the tool's design as it must remove deeply embedded threats.Affected if The application runs with elevated privileges (this is the default behavior and necessary for the vulnerability to be exploitable)
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Confirm local user access existsVerify that untrusted local users have file system access to the Norton Power Eraser installation directory or can execute programs on the system.Affected if Untrusted local users can interact with the Norton Power Eraser executable or its files
The system is affected if Norton Power Eraser is installed with a version lower than 5.3.0.67 and the application runs with elevated privileges, allowing a local attacker to potentially abuse its trusted elevated status.
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 data5.3.0.67
Upgrade Norton Power Eraser to version 5.3.0.67 or later to remediate this vulnerability.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation1.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-19548 — 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-2019-19548 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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